GUITAR An American Life

The guitar is an icon of Americana, whether in the hands of cowboy singers, Hawaiian slide players, or heavy metal shredders. Tim Brookes’s cultural history of the instrument is moved along by a personal narrative: a description of the six months in which a master luthier built Brookes his first custom guitar. It’s a tad surprising that this very American story is told in a British accent (he’s an ex-pat living in Vermont), but Brookes is the perfect reader for his own material--passionate, knowledgeable, and funny. There are some unnecessary tangents and tenuous arguments, but Brookes has a musician’s ear for storytelling, a dry sense of humor, and some terrific turns of phrase. D.B. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 05]