Today, January 9, 2026, is the sixty-eighth anniversary of the release of Duane Eddy’s classic first album, Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel (1958). 

Eddy was born in Corning on April 26, 1938, and his family resided at 389 East Second Street, just across Park Avenue from Denison Park, where he played as a boy.  

The cliff notes version of his story is that he and his family lived in our area, first in Corning, then in Bath and finally in Guyanoga, near Branchport, until he was 13-years-old and then they moved to Arizona, where he subsequently met his first producer Lee Hazlewood and kicked off his recording career. And while living in our area, he loved listening to music on the radio and first began playing the guitar. His twangy guitar playing was both pioneering and influential as nothing like it had been heard before. His guitar playing influenced countless subsequent generations of guitarists including George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Brian Setzer, Mark Knopfler and Marty Stuart among many others. 

He was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, The Steuben County Hall of Fame in 2022, and a historic marker celebrating his life and music was unveiled in Corning in September 2025.  

In 2017, local media host & Corning Duane Eddy Circle member, Frank Acomb interviewed Eddy. And in the first ten minutes of the 47-minute interview, Eddy relayed a couple of great stories of his life as a boy living in our area. He remembered playing in Denison Park, discovering the guitar shortly after his family moved to Bath, and he offered a neat story of being allowed as boy, to walk across Park Avenue in Corning, to the corner store to pick up the Sunday newspaper. It is a cool interview, and it is wonderful to hear Eddy talk fondly about his younger days spent in New York State. Here is the link:  

 

And here is a link to stream the album Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel, which features the songs Cannon Ball, Ram Rod, Movin’ ‘N Groovin’ and Rebel Rouser among other great songs: 

 

Have a great day! 

Linda Reimer, SSCL