Gage Brewer

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (November 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) It has been suggested that this article be checked to ensure a neutral point of view. Discussion can be found on the talk page. (November 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Gage Kelso Brewer (1904 in Gage, Oklahoma – 1985 in Wichita, Kansas) was an American musician, guitarist and bandleader. Brewer is credited with the first staging of a publicly promoted performance featuring the electric guitar, as well as the earliest recording using both the electric Hawaiian and electric Spanish guitar.^{[citation needed]}

Brewer never recorded a commercially released record, published a hit song or performed at any length as part of a nationally famous musical organization. His only known recording is a direct-to-disk 78rpm record made in Denver, Colorado in the mid 1930s.

Brewer played primarily in the Hawaiian style with the guitar, face up, across the lap, intonated with a bar rather than fretted by hand. When he was born in Gage, Oklahoma Territory, Hawaiian music featuring the guitar would gain important public exposure at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair. This music inspired musicians across the continent and eventually worldwide. Its influence on the music of the mainland would be profound through the mid 20th century.^[1]

By the age of 14 Brewer was entertaining the people of Shattuck, Oklahoma, giving lessons and working in the town's theater. In 1920 he traveled to California for the first of what would be many visits. There he studied with Victor Recording artist Sam P. Moore, who was a well-known artist of the Hawaiian Style Guitar. Moore was one of the earliest mainlanders to apply the Hawaiian Style of playing to more traditional American folk songs foreshadowing the instrument's prominence in country music. While in California, according to “Who’s Who in the World of Music – 1936”, Brewer also studied under Sol Hoʻopiʻi, Jack Miller, and D. S. Delano. Brewer's formal musical education continued when he returned to the mid-west and attended Northwestern Oklahoma Teachers College in Alva. At about this time Brewer also worked Vaudeville, Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits.^[2]

By the mid-1920s Brewer had relocated to Wichita, Kansas, where he would establish his home base and work into the 1960s. From Wichita he began touring with his own orchestra and broadcasting on radio to further promote his work.

References[]

• Lynn Wheelwright (July 2008). "Ro-Pat-In Electric Spanish, Vintage Guitar Magazine". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Lorene Ruymar (1996). The Hawaiian Guitar and its Great Musicians. Centerstream Publishing. pp. 27, 75.
• Bob Brozman (1993). The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments. Centerstream Publishing. p. 36.