The country superstar shares his love for Dumbles, writing riffs on cheap guitars, and the Nocaster once owned by Cinderella’s Tom Keifer that’s “worth every cent”

Fifty years on from their first successes, Roger McGuinn, the 12-string architect of THE BYRDS , tells Uncut about their exceptional first 18 months – and his relationship with Gene Clark. As the young group make their jet-powered escape from the folk think tank, we hear about making the scene on the Strip, outraging Iowa and a muted response in the United Kingdom. But ultimately how “Eight Miles High” became the spectacular conclusion of the band’s first era. “I almost left The Byrds entirely to go and be in this space band With Dino Valente,” McGuinn tells John Robinson

THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

Your letters to the Guitarist editor. Drop us a line at guitarist@futurenet.com

From the bayou to Woodstock and back – the easygoing adventures of Bobby Charles. By John Mulvey.

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”