The Birth of Loud

Narrator Pete Simonelli rolls through this history of the electric guitar like he's cruising down the interstate. His steady pacing and relaxed tone are just what's needed to complement author Ian Port's captivating anecdotal story of innovation and rivalry. Port uses the solid-body electric guitar and bass as metaphors for the cultural changes that occurred from the end of WWII to the mid-1970s while illuminating electric visionaries and trendsetters such as Jimmy Bryant, Merle Travis, Muddy Waters, Dick Dale (whose quest for volume caused Leo Fender to lose hearing in one ear), Carol Kay, Eric Clapton, and, of course, Les Paul (an unforgiving taskmaster). The result is an audiobook that should be mandatory listening in business school (a classic story of three innovators, once friends and later foes) and art school (how technology influences art and vice versa). R.W.S. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine