Join us for our free monthly Zoom Drop-In every second Wednesday of the month
Sounds of Chicago: History of County Music & the Folk Revival in Chicago
with Mark Guarino, Journalist, Covering National News & Culture from Chicago
January 10, 2024
12–1pm Central Time
Meeting ID: 240 191 593
Passcode: Lunch
Join via Zoom
The untold story of Chicago’s pivotal role as a country and folk music capital.
Chicago is revered as a musical breeding ground, having launched major figures like blues legend Muddy Waters, gospel soul icon Mavis Staples, hip-hop firebrand Kanye West, and the jazz-rock band that shares its name with the city. Far less known, however, is the vital role Chicago played in the rise of prewar country music, the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, and the contemporary offspring of those scenes.
In Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival, veteran journalist Mark Guarino tells the epic century-long story of Chicago’s influence on sounds typically associated with regions further south. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and deep archival research, Guarino tells a forgotten story of music, migration, and the ways that rural culture infiltrated urban communities through the radio, the automobile, and the railroad. The Midwest’s biggest city was the place where rural transplants could reinvent themselves and shape their music for the new commercial possibilities the city offered.
OUR SPEAKER
Mark Guarino, a journalist who writes about culture, national news, and all points between. He is a contributing writer to The Washington Post where he frequently covers Chicago and the Midwest. Mark’s journalism also appears in several other national and local. He was also the pop music critic for The Chicago Daily Herald for 11 years. He is a frequent media guest to talk about his work, having appeared on the BBC, CBC, Sirius/XM POTUS Channel 124, National Public Radio (NPR), Al-Jazeera television, Chicago Tonight (WTTW Chicago), WGN-AM, WLS-AM, WVON, Russia Today (RT), Geraldo Rivera (FOX), and other outlets. In addition, Mark has taught journalism at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
CHPV members and friends can use code UCPNEW for 30% off Mark Guarino's Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival exclusively at University of Chicago Press.
WOULD YOU LIKE A REMINDER?
You may optionally sign up to receive a friendly email reminder with the Zoom Meeting details on the morning of the seminar. Click the "Sign Up for Reminder" button on this page.
Chicago Hyde Park Village's free Zoom Drop-In series is held every 2nd Wednesday of the month. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified when we post a new video recording.