WOPI in Bristol, Tennessee has been broadcasting since 1929. It plays a critical role in the region and it now resides in a giant, three-story guitar. That’s only part of story. The building and station are tied to a man named Joe Morrell. Joe Morrell, a musician in Curly King and the Tennessee Hilltoppers, made Guitars for bluegrass players on The Crooked Road, or Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. Emile Klein of You’re U.S. shares the story of a man who helped cement Bristol’s title of “The Birthplace of Country Music.” and whose contributions are still supporting the region’s rich musical heritage today.

Photo Courtesy of WOPI

Thanks again to Emile Klein for his help with the story. You can find more about You’re U.S. on the web, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Learn more about the history of WOPI at this link.

“I made that photo of Joe just after he opened the Grand Guitar. He was so excited and proud of his building. That photo was distributed around the world at the time and he recieved international attention.” Photo by: Earl Carter

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Emile took some more photos of his trip:

Find the Grand Guitar on Google Maps, learn more about the Joe Morrell Scholarship Fund and some music of the Crooked Road.

Joe and Curly King (Photo from: Images of America, Bristol by George Stone and Sonya A. Haskins. Copyright 2005.)

The music in this episode was provided by Michael Staun.

Special thanks to WCQS for generously offering their studio for the recording of this piece.

This episode uses these sound effects from freesound.org: ‘Seattle Public Market Center’ by Lenguaverde

Recalling 1993 was a project by an agency called Droga5 to supplement the NYC 1993 exhibit at the New  Museum in 2013. The idea was simple: Pick up a phone, dial a special number, and get connected to a story from the neighborhood you were standing in from 1993. Find out how New York has changed in twenty years and how this project was coordinated with Ray Del Savio.

In 2010, Nick Didkovsky’s friend, Chuck O’Meara, sent him an email with a cryptic subject line. The email had a small picture of an unbranded red guitar that had a price tag of $100. They joked about splitting up the cost amongst friends and letting everyone use it to record their own projects. Before they owned the guitar the word spread and they had dozens of people committed to the idea of recording with it. Find out how this inexpensive guitar went from being a joke to traveling the world with the $100 Guitar Project.

You can purchase the $100 Guitar Project Two-CD set to benefit CARE at this link. All selections from this episode were featured on this compilation.

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Correction: In this piece we refer to Greg Anderson’s song as “Bale Wagon Blues.” The title is simply, “Bale Wagon.” We regret the error.