Every year, more than 5,000 steel guitar devotees descend on St. Louis from destinations the world over for Scotty’s International Steel Guitar Convention. In the basement of the Millennium Hotel, along the banks of the Mississippi River, they revel in the minutae of finger pick options, gawk at space-age tone bars, debate the merits of alternate tunings, and rub elbows with the very legends who have defined the instrument.

To help explain why the sweet sound of a steel bar on guitar strings is the inspiration for an annual pilgrimage, we produced an audio documentary for Cityscape, the local arts and culture show on St. Louis’ NPR affiliate, KWMU.