Brandon Barker, Visiting Lecturer in IU’s Deartment of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, will explain the historical, musical, and mechanical climates that gave rise to the contemporary pedal steel guitar, while highlighting pedal steel players’ attendant beliefs about their instrument. Barker received his PhD and wrote his dissertation, “The American Pedal Steel Guitar: Material Culture, Folklore, and Embodiment” (2012), at the University of Louisiana. For the better part of a decade he has studied the history and development of the pedal steel, pedal players, and builders in the southern United States–especially in and around Nasvhille, Tennessee. The lecture will be free and open to the public.

Cost: Free

For more information contact:

Judy Kirk
(812)855-1696
[email protected]