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Foo Fighters' American music history lesson 'Sonic Highways' premieres tonight

Foo Fighters' American music history lesson 'Sonic Highways' premieres tonight

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The new HBO documentary series Sonic Highways — directed by the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl — debuts tonight, and if it's anything like the extremely well-received documentary Sound City he directed in 2013, it might just be worth canceling your Friday night plans for.

The eight-part series is going to follow Grohl as he visits touchstone American recording studios in different cities that are steeped in musical lore, and will feature conversations with the important musicians who have called these places home. The power combination of (soon-to-be-unbundled) HBO and Grohl meant that the series was able to compile an impressive list of interviewees, as the trailer alone teases talks with everyone from 20th-century icons like Dolly Parton and Buddy Guy to Pharrell and Barack Obama. It's a project of epic scope, something that Grohl described to Billboard as "a fucking beast" back in May:

"It's basically the history of American music broken down to the cultural roots of each place: Why did Chicago become a blues capital? Why did country go to Nashville? Why did the first psychedelic band, Thirteenth Floor Elevators, come from Austin? How did the second line rhythm make its way to New Orleans? It's crazy."Sonic Highways premieres tonight at 11pm on HBO.