Welcome to Pursuing the Muse. This go round we have Mark Guarino, a veteran journalist for the Washington Post and ABC News, and author of the award-winning music history book, Country and Midwestern. 

We discuss how Chicago’s role in country and folk history is like an independent research lab. While Nashville became the high-profile factory producing the finished "products" for the mass market, Chicago was the experimental space where the formulas were first discovered, tested, and pushed into weird, new directions away from corporate oversight. Mark's extensive stories reveal a rich century of Chicago's music evolution. 

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https://countryandmidwestern.com

https://www.instagram.com/markguarino

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• 00:00:54 – Intro: Tom Compton welcomes Mark Guarino

• 00:02:07 – Huskies Pride: Reminiscing about high school days and ill-fated track team experiences.

• 00:05:32 – A Decade of Discovery: The ten-year journey of writing Country and Midwestern

• 00:07:44 – Human-Centric History: Why focusing on the stories of people is the key

• 00:10:01 – The Unique 1990s: the luck of being a journalist in the right place at the right time.

• 00:12:12 – An "Injustice" Rectified

• 00:13:12 – WLS National Barn Dance

• 00:15:33 – "Hillbilly Heaven" in Uptown

• 00:20:05 – Stories of Resistance

• 00:22:14 – The Gate of Horn

• 00:24:29 – Bob Gibson’s Dark Side

• 00:28:06 – Old Town School of Folk Music

• 00:32:48 – McCarthyism & The FBI

• 00:37:08 – The Prine Connection

• 00:38:35 – Bob Dylan Deemed Unworthy.

• 00:42:44 – A Living Legacy: the University of Chicago Folk Festival

• 00:45:15 – From the Will the Circle Be Unbroken resurgence to the modern popularity of Bluegrass.

• 00:47:55 – The Spirit of Collaboration

• 00:53:44 – 2025 Favorite Releases

• 00:57:17 – Van Morrison’s Deep Cuts

• 01:03:05 – Closing superlatives