Elijah Wald

Elijah Wald started playing guitar after seeing his first Pete Seeger concert at age seven. Since then, he has gone on to travel around the world playing, studying, and reporting on all kinds of music. With an interdisciplinary PhD in ethnomusicology and sociolinguistics, Wald has taught in the musicology department at UCLA and done original research on several categories of popular music. His work explores a broad spectrum of music within sociocultural contexts.

Wald's previous titles include Escaping the Delta, a look at the life of blues legend Robert Johnson that explores his broad role in American culture and his influence on later blues and rock, and Narcocorrido, a journey into the Mexican ballads of drug smuggling and immigration that shows how these tales of illegality and danger hold significance from multiple political and cultural perspectives.

With the release of his new book, Dylan Goes Electric!, Wald travels around the world speaking on the significance of the day Dylan “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival, timed to coincide with the event’s fiftieth anniversary. His expertise in pop music and changing technologies, ranging genres, from early blues to the folk revival, and the way women have come to rule pop music make Wald a diverse and memorable choice. Your audience will be informed and entertained as Wald incorporates live music and plays guitar during his presentation, complimenting his remarkable knowledge base in a truly unique way!