From PRX.

Studio 360.

In today's special hour of American icons, we'll take a closer look at some of the music, art, and design that have become part of our shared American culture

that shape how we think about ourselves and our country.

We've got three stories today, about a desert, an electric guitar, and a motorcycle.

And that was at the time that the men were all talking about the great American novel,

the great American play, the great American, oh, it was the great American everything.

And I thought they didn't know anything about America. A lot of them had never been across the Hudson.

It's like the zeit guys had bombed it up this moment, this thing.

But it was also the soundtrack of a country tearing itself apart in the real time.

A person can participate in this grand tradition of playing the cowboy,

rather than riding on his steed.

He can ride on his iron horse out into the open interstates of the United

States. First, the motorcycle, and not just any old bike, a Harley Davidson. It's the bike with the

huge, shiny metal engine and the distinctive roar, the biker's bike. Since he was 14 years old,

independent radio producer Jay Allison has owned and

ridden dozens of motorcycles. He's taken a Harley Davidson fat boy down Arizona's Apache Trail,

an electric glide up the Pacific Coast Highway, and a V-rod through Yellowstone. He starts this off

now at Bike Week in Laconia, New Hampshire.

There's only one minivan parked at the biker bar, and it's mine.

I drove the minivan because I brought my wife and baby up to Bike Week for their good company.

But it's not really a family event.

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