NEED TO REACH ME?

POSTING COMMENTS IS CLOSED TO ALL EXCEPT MEMBERS OF THIS BLOG.
To become a member, email me, COSA, at the first address, below.

After joining, just click on the COMMENTS button at the end of each post, then on the POST A COMMENT button on the next page. Suggestion: Add your name or nik, and feel free to link it to your site and/or email addy.

PLEASE use this address for private communications: cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom (AT = @ DOT = . ) Thanks.

NOTE: WE NOW HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT, FOR ANYONE WHO CARES TO HELP US GET BACK ONLINE HERE ON A REGULAR BASIS:

my_other_addyAThotmailDOTcom

(No messages unrelated to payments here, please.)

TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!

INSTANT EXPERT

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND BULLSHIT PEOPLE ON THE WORLD-WIDE WEB

Today, Class, We'll Become Experts In Country Music's Own Special Instrument: The Dobro

The instrument I associate with that tinny, quavering, high-pitched guitar sound has a large sort of metal resonator, lets call it, in the center of the "voice-box" of the guitar, i.e. the bottom part, not the neck. It's big in blue-grass, old-school country, and your better country-rock groups.

"LISTEN"

Here's a bunch of pictures, and Gawd bless Google's image search:

"DOBRO"

Let's see what Mister Intenet has to say about this...

OK, the Dobro was named for its' inventors, the immigrant Slovakian DOpyera BROthers, of Los Angeles, who were commissioned to find a way to increase the volume of pre-electric guitars, to compete with horns and banjos, etc, on bandstands and on the radio, back in the 1920s.

"The Dobro Story"

The original resonator guitar was the Dopyera's "National," with an all-steel body, like the one Johnny Winter plays on his first album, "The Progressive Blues Experiment." Then one of Dopyera's split and started making less costly, wooden "Dobros."

The two companies later merged, and finally went under after electrification, and more "sophisticated" tastes killed the market. "Gibson guitars" later revived them, or at least the Dobro.

This is a good thing. Gibson is known for quality, and classic guitars still prized by great musicians everywhere, both electric, like the "Les Paul" model, and acoustic, like the "Hummingbird." You're probably listening to one of them right now. (Not to slight "Martin's," or "Fender's;" great guitars, also.)

They came to America from Spain and have connexions to other European and African musical traditions: Yet, the resonant banjo and the guitar, especially the slide guitar and the electric guitar, are the most uniquely American of all instruments.

The music they make, and the image of free-wheeling, easy-going, road-hitting, rock and rolling exuberance is one of the few good things we have left here, in the eyes of the world; along with the jazz trumpet and saxophone, portable instruments of a road-based culture, also.

It says to the world that, despite the horrors of our amoral government and our rapacious corporate elite, down here on the dance floor, we're still good people, just like all the other victims of the dark side of L'America.

While you've still got 'em, celebrate your freedoms, and your roots, kids: Pack yer axe and hit the road! Let the world know what you're made of: Rhythm and blues.

And there you have it: Fifteen minutes on the Internet can make YOU an expert in anything! Now, about that nukuler physisist's job...

Cross-posted at "It's Morning Somewhere". Thank you, Ms. OWL!

TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!