Fact #776

Bob Dylan : In the 1920s, people fell in love with Hawaii. Hawaiian music absorbed many influences. Mexican cowboys went to Hawaii in the late 1800s and Hawaiians fell in love with their guitars. They started changing them around, loosening the guitar strings or slackening them, creating what's known as slack-key tuning. It gave them the ability to play bass on the loosened bass strings while still playing a melody on the higher treble strings. Another thing that happened was the steel guitar.
(from his radio show Theme Time Radio Hour, 2007)