Every object around us contains the history of all the people and places that brought it here. But rarely is that history explored. In this book, instead of breaking an object apart to reveal those stories, they are told by building the object a guitar named Storyteller from scratch. The text and illustrations reveal the rich lives of the people, places, and projects that breathed life into it. The stories range from people who were pioneers in landscape restoration to those involved with automobile manufacturing. The places include the high arctic, tropical forests, and vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. The projects include stage plays, laser physics and the establishment of the first Canadian diamond mines. By bringing together these disparate stories in one musical instrument the book makes the argument that art, science, and history are part of everybody’s life.

Every object around us contains the history of all the people and places that brought it here. But rarely is that history explored. In this book, instead of breaking an object apart to reveal those stories, they are told by building the object a guitar named Storyteller from scratch. The text and illustrations reveal the rich lives of the people, places, and projects that breathed life into it. The stories range from people who were pioneers in landscape restoration to those involved with automobile manufacturing. The places include the high arctic, tropical forests, and vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. The projects include stage plays, laser physics and the establishment of the first Canadian diamond mines. By bringing together these disparate stories in one musical instrument the book makes the argument that art, science, and history are part of everybody’s life.

Reunion is the awkward, tender meeting between a father and daughter after nearly twenty years separation. Dark Pony is the telling of a mythical story by a father to his young daughter as they drive home in the evening.

You know those times when you're sitting down with a good friend and one of you shares a story that makes both of you laugh? Then you understand the enjoyment that you'll get starting with the very first page of Every Guitar Tells A Story. It's like sitting down with an old friend and listening to twelve stories that will surprise you, instruct you, make you laugh, and maybe even make you feel a little sentimental. So how could a book about guitars do that? Accept Charlie's invitation to find out about passion and the joy it brings by reading this book. Then you can sit down with that friend and share one of your stories about your guitar that will make you both laugh. Enjoy! Charlie McCurry 2008 National Guitar Workshop Songwriting Summit Contest Winner, "It's Only Rain" 2012 Smoky Mountains Songwriters Festival Contest Honorable Mention, "There You Are" and "It's Only Rain"

Named one of the world’s great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Mike Bloomfield (1943–1981) remains beloved by fans forty years after his untimely death. Taking readers backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield’s work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as on the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. In vivid chapters drawn from meticulous research, including more than seventy interviews with the musician’s friends, relatives, and band members, music historian David Dann brings to life Bloomfield’s worlds, from his comfortable upbringing in a Jewish family on Chicago’s North Shore to the gritty taverns and raucous nightclubs where this self-taught guitarist helped transform the sound of contemporary blues and rock music. With scenes that are as electrifying as Bloomfield’s solos, this is the story of a life lived at full volume.

The picture book biography of ingenious American inventor Leo Fender, creator of the world’s most iconic Fender electric guitars. For readers who love Iggy Peck, Architect. Leo Fender loved to thinker and tinker and take things apart and put them back together again. When he lost an eye in a childhood accident, he refused to think of himself as broken. With a new pair of magnifying glasses, Leo got back to doing what he loved, fixing machines big and small—even broken instruments. His inventions—which included the Telecaster and the Stratocaster—would inspire the rock ’n’ roll generation and go on to amplify the talents of legendary guitarists Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt, among others. Fender’s brilliant engineering vision connected science and art forever. Christy Ottaviano Books

Ask guitar players about their instruments, and you’re likely to get a story—where the guitar came from, or what makes it unique, or why the player will never part with it. Most guitarists have strong feelings about their primary tool, and some are downright passionate about their axes. Chuck Holley is a professional photographer and writer who loves music and listening to musicians talk about their trade. For several years, he has been photographing guitarists with their prized instruments and collecting their stories. This beautifully illustrated book presents these stories in revelatory photographs and words. The guitarists included in this book range from high-profile performers, including Rosanne Cash, Guy Clark, Laurence Juber, Jorma Kaukonen, JD Souther, Bill Frisell, Dave Alvin, and Kelly Willis, to renowned studio musicians and band members. Holley’s beautifully composed photographs portray them with their favorite guitar, including detail shots of the instrument. Accompanying the photographs are the musicians’ stories about the Gibsons, Fenders, Martins, and others that have become the guitar in their lives, the one that has a special lineage or intangible qualities of sustain, tone, clarity, and comfort that make it irreplaceable. Several musicians talk about how the guitar chose them, while others recount stories of guitars lost or stolen and then serendipitously recovered. Together, these photographs and stories underscore the great pleasure of performing with an instrument that’s become a trusted friend with a personality all its own.