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Guitar: An American Life.(Book Review)
Guitar: An American Life, by Tim Brookes. Grove Press/Atlantic, Inc. (841 Broadway, 4th Flr., New York, NY 10003), 2005. 339 pp. $24.
This is an extremely interesting and entertaining book about the guitar and its development in America. While it is not primarily a history, it does include tantalizing facts and stories that are not readily available elsewhere. The author, an amateur guitarist, treats the subject with great affection, humor and occasional criticism.
The book is organized around Tim Brookes's quest for the perfect guitar to replace a long-loved, but unfortunately damaged, instrument. He includes chapters about searching for and finding the right guitar maker, sound, style, choice of woods and decorations--with fascinating digressions into inlay work and rosette designs. Although not present for the whole process, Brookes documents the actual building of the guitar with colorful descriptions of this semi-magical process.
Interspersed among these chapters are discussions of the guitar's rise to popularity. From a supposition of the first guitarist in America (a Spanish solider named Juan Garcia y Talvarea, 1576) to jazz, blues and rock, these chapters contain some of the most beguiling stories about the instrument, its players, promoters and other assorted personages. Brookes ...
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