Customer Reviews

Guitar: an American Life

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This fabulous double account of guitar use and history is a great emotional ride any guitar lover can mentally jump aboard for an entertaining scenic journey. It took me back to the first time I heard flamenco in a music store, and ran home to get my sister so she could hear it -- and the hand-built Villafán classical I bought in Mexico City in 1958, the Conde Hermanos flamenco I bought in Madrid in 1960 and the Ramírez flamenco I ordered there in 1960, and waited for until 1962. Fifteen years ago I bought a hand-built Pimentel here in Albuquerque, for my son. We still have all these hand-made acoustic guitars; they're like members of my family.

My point is that I picked up the book as someone long experienced in guitars, already having read widely on guitars, yet found this Brookes book to add to my knowledge and become my favorite. If you're interested in the guitar, there's just no way you can go wrong buying this book. This is an author who really understands the soul of his subject.

You wouldn't believe a book about the guitar could be this enthralling. I got my copy last night, and couldn't put it down until I finished it this morning.

Tim Brookes weaves a story with two threads: a step-by-step account of having his own guitar custom-built by Vermont guitar-maker Rick Davis, and the step-by-step story of how the guitar became THE instrument of American music.

If you've ever played guitar, or enjoyed listening to it in any of its many musical roles - folk, classical, blues, rock or heavy-metal weapon - you will love this book.

The writing is excellent, evocative of many memories - and very, very funny. Example from the Glossary:

"Guitar, bass: Low-end instrument, in every sense, to which a guitarist is banished when the band hires someone better than him to take over lead."

From Singing Cowboys, Hawaiian slide wizards and exploited black bluesmen to the British Invasion of the 1960s, Heavy-Metal Heroes and pimply punks; Brookes evokes them all.

But this isn't yet another book about guitar heroes - this time the hero is the guitar itself.

I'm already thinking about starting it over again...

This one-of-a-kind book by Tim Brookes is the book I wish I could have written (assuming I was an actual writer, or similarly gifted). I.E: Presenting factual information (much rarely, if ever, written about) in an entertaining way, so the "laymusician" can enjoy and understand it. The simple Glossary alone is worth the admission price ("DADGAD: A wonderfully clever tuning that has the combined effect of making a guitarist seem not only dexterous but also emotionally complex. Deep, even. Its use is heavily protected by copyright"). Much like T.V.'s The Simpsons, Tim has the ability to boil down indecipherable history and complex truths into a single witty sentence that most of us can understand and relate to.
Every other chapter concerns the author's experience in ordering his first custom guitar. Those of you who play and cherish new instruments should enjoy and relate to Tim's journey.
The remaining chapters present Tim's unique view of the guitar's American cultural history, in ALL its permutations. Mr. Brookes fearlessly approaches this topic from a fresh, "outsider's" perspective. With it, he hits upon a new simple, obvious (and necessary) explanation of a guitar: "Not a single instrument but a syndrome, a collection of symptoms from a list" (then giving some examples from this list).
What all this boils down to is, in effect, two short "novels" - independent stories presented with so much new insight and humor that I was saddened when each ended.
-Gregg Miner

(full disclosure: I own a guitar made by Rick Davis, the luthier in the book, and it's my favorite material possession)

This is really two books woven together. The first is a history of the guitar... how it developed in American music, and how it became the icon it is today. The second story is about how the author lost a beloved guitar to baggage handlers, and had a new instrument handmade for him - and documented that process along the way. Each story is compelling in its own right, but together, they're more effective than either one would0 be separately. The historical part is imbued with a sense of the author's personal love for guitars, and the personal story is given a sense of academic discipline and rigor.

If you love guitars, and are interested in how they are made and how they became so widespread and important, read this book!

A good news-bad news book to be sure. The good news is that it's a very readable history of the guitar and often quite insightful. I can't imagine any guitar player not getting something of value out of this book. On the other hand it is very uneven. The author admits the book is not for the scholar,fine, but it could have stood a good tightening up by the author or a good editor, light read or not. As pointed out by another reviewer the Holly chapter is the best example, but there are many others. Also the author has a real attitude about dreadnaught shaped guitars! This is a re-occurring theme throughout the book. This sort of snide attitude shows up too often in the book on other subjects as well. One can almost picture the author in self satisfied reverie, sitting on his porch in the pristine Vermont woods, a Starbucks nearby, stroking his beloved handmade guitar as he puts the finishing touches on his manuscript. It's not a bad read but has a definite amateur quality about it.

Mr. Brookes has written a compelling history of the guitar in American culture, with the occasional bit thrown in about the building of his own guitar. I might have preferred a bit more emphasis on the building of his guitar, but still found the history lesson involving. If you are thinking of having a guitar custom built, I'm not sure this book will be of much help...I don't believe that was the intent. If you want to better know the place of guitar in history, and enjoy some fascinating stories of early 20th century muscicians you will find this an enjoyable read.

The author did a good job of taking you through the process of guitar making. But, I got the sense that his interest was more in replacing his old guitar with a custom guitar than in really knowing how a guitar is crafted from a master luthier. For a very personal account of such an endeavor, I recommend reading Clapton's Guitar : Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument: by Allen St. John. Allen spends A LOT of time with Wayne and comes to fully appreciate the subtle nuances of guitar making and the pure love that Wayne seems to put into a guitar. It took Wayne 10 years to finally get around to making Clapton's guitar because he really didn't care about the fame or Clapton as much as the casual reader might imagine. What Wayne cares about is building instruments for people who truly appreciate them and the craft that goes into building them.

If I had read Guitar: An American Life first, and then read St. John's book, I think I would've liked this book better. But, after reading St.John's book, this one seemed like a little bit of a let down. Both are good books. I just think that St. John has a more personal relationship with his luthier and it shows in this account of how Wayne Henderson approaches his craft.

I guess I'm in the minority here. This book is extensively researched and beautifully written. That being said, the alternating chapters on guitar history seem to go into agonizing detail about every individual who has ever played or crafted a guitar in the last 500 years. The author painstakingly mentions every notable individual in guitar history, and many who are not so notable. You really need to be fascinated with guitar history to get into this book. Unfortunately, there's not much "meat" about the crafting of the author's new guitar.

I've been playing guitars and reading about them for 40 years. I felt I really knew what a guitar was and where it came from. But Brookes,really knows the score! This guy has a grip on the 'big picture' of guitars and their music.In brief, his guitar gets smashed so he treats himself to a custom built replacement. With him, we peer over the shoulder of the luither and learn the finer points of guitar construction. While the glue is setting up or the finishing is drying, Brookes regales us with the strange and twisted story of the guitar. How it begins in America as an instrument so reviled,it is suitable only for vagabonds and cowboys. But the tale comes to a surprise ending with the guitar rising to such importance that it total dominates instruments and music world wide. How did this happen? Brookes knows and so will you. His insights are phenomenal. Who would you think are 2 of the guitar's most influencial practitioners? Clapton? Les Paul? Hendrix? How about Joseph Kekuku and Gene Autry. No kidding! And Brookes makes a very believeable case for them. However there are two omissions that you should know about: 1- there is no discussion of how 'spanish tuning' became the standard tuning.After all the world is filled with slack key and open tunings, look at the world of lap and pedal steel guitar,a strange nebulous world of no standard tuning. 2-there's no index! You can't access the information easily. But that aside....Brookes has done alot of research and the guy really loves guitars..a man after my heart. You will see your guitar in a different light.

This is a wonderful journey through the history and joys of the guitar and the people who enjoy listening, playing and appreciating. The author, Tim Brookes, weaves a clever series of vignettes about the crafting of a custom made guitar in Vermont, in between recanting the evolution of this hardy, stringed instrument. It is no small wonder that certain "twists of fate" in the 20th Century, captured eloquently here, have proven to be the patron of the guitar and its hallowed place in America and the Globe. This was a book I could not put down until it was finished. A masterful bit of prose.