Guitar; an American life
About 25 years ago I thought I'd get a jump on my mid-life crisis by doing something different, deciding to take an aerobics dance class, pierce my ears (I have no discernable ear lobes and don't wear earrings), and learn to play the guitar. I did take the exercise dance class, liked it even though it meant sweating and over about 6 months I lost 20 pounds and went to work for one of my instructors. A story I wrote about it was published in the Columbus Dispatch. But poke holes in my dainty, tiny ears? No way. I did actually borrow a guitar for awhile from our friend John who told me he'd give me lessons, but memories of the trombone and piano failures came back to haunt me, and I don't think I ever even went plunkity plunk.Yesterday at the library I was looking for an interesting, non-fiction audiobook to listen to while I walk and discovered "Guitar; an American Life," by Tim Brookes, a British ex-pat who lives in Vermont and is a commentator on NPR and writes for various magazines. I just had no idea that the history of the guitar would be so interesting. And when you start with almost no knowledge on a topic, you are soon 1000% smarter than you were a day ago! 24 hours ago I would have thought "luthier" was a misspelling of Luther, but it is someone who makes guitars. Here's a nice review by ricklibrarian with bibliographic details about the book and the audiobook.
Here's Brookes' list of 100 guitarists who weren't on Rolling Stones list.
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2 comments:
I've loved guitar all of my life. I can play, I'm a decent strummer, but I cannot play "leads."
The history goes back hundreds of years, and strangely, the best books I've read on the history of guitar are from British authors. Though I haven't read the one you talk about here.
If Rolling Stone put out a list, it's mostly going to be rock 'n roll guitarists, and maybe a few blues players thrown in.
In the list you point to in this post, he lists a man names Phil Keaggy. Phil Keaggy's music is THE REASON I decided to finally try to buy a guitar and try to teach myself to play. He's a master. He's a strong Christian man who has many rock style albums as well as some of the most beautiful and lush acoustic instrumental albums I've ever heard.
My wife bought me an ipod recently. The first music I put on it was the Phil Keaggy albums I own.
Thanks for the book tip. I'll have to try to add it to my collection.
If you're familiar with the history of guitar, you may know much of this, but it was all new to me. Really great listening.
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