Guitar Man A Six-String Odyssey, or, You Love that Guitar More than You Love Me

by Hodgkinson, Will

• ISBN13: 9780306815140
• ISBN10: 0306815141
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-26
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

The guitar is the iconic instrument of modern popular music. It is portable, it has history, and it will always be hip. But why has the guitar become such a classic? Will Hodgkinson, a wannabe guitar player, whose only experience was an afternoon's bashing on a friend's guitar at the age of sixteen, set out to find out. Along the way he hoped to teach himself a few chords too. His goal was to get good enough to play before a live audience in just six months--even if it threatened to drive his wife and family to the point of insanity. His trip becomes an odyssey: He chats with British folk legend Bert Jansch, ex-Smith's guitarist Johnny Marr, and reclusive folk guitar legend Davey Graham, as well as Sufjan Stevens, PJ Harvey, and Cat Power's chanteuse Chan Marshall. He travels to America and with a hurricane brewing visits Roger McGuinn from the Byrds. He travels to the Deep South, looking for the spirit of Robert Johnson, and drops in on T-Model Ford, an old bluesman living in Mississippi. Gloriously readable and highly amusing,Guitar Manis classic obsessional nonfiction for a nation of guitar freaks.

Author Biography

Will Hodgkinson has written for the Guardian, Mojo, and the Daily Telegraph, among other publications. He lives with his wife and two children in London.

Table of Contents

You Can't Always Get What You Want	1	(24)
Django Reinhardt and Other Bohemians	25	(23)
The People's Guitar	48	(22)
The Cosmic Guitarist	70	(24)
Disaster	94	(15)
A Byrd Takes Flight	109	(15)
Nashville and Memphis	124	(21)
Another Soul for Sale	145	(14)
The Last Blues Man in Mississippi	159	(13)
Secrets from Two Old Masters	172	(12)
Going Electric	184	(17)
Double Fantasy	201	(28)
Guitar Total	229	(21)
Impending Doom	250	(20)
The Gig	270	(17)
Epilogue	287	(4)
Acknowledgements	291