Between the Strings
To paraphrase Ann Petry, "Everything you ever had, everything you ever lost. It's all there in the guitar—pain and hate and trouble and peace and quiet and love." There is so much more to music than meets the ears. To discover that, one needs only to read "between the strings."
BETWEEN THE STRINGS: THE SECRET LIVES OF GUITARS is a collection of more than one hundred short stories, each with a guitar at its center. A veritable compendium of the world's greatest guitarists, from BB to ZZ (B.B. King to ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, that is), the stories are inspiring, uplifting, illuminating, humorous, stirring, and edifying. Some of the stories are simply entertaining in the way they take unexpected twists and turns. Others are biographical. Many involve a guitar that was received, given away, lost, stolen, recovered, offered to its player a special song, or was pivotal in a personal relationship or life experience. Each of these stories reveals something of the human spirit, as well as something of the supernatural that sometimes makes its way into our ordinary, everyday existence. But in every case, the variety of experiences, settings, and remarkable outcomes are linked by the common celebration of life with the guitar. There is so much more to music than meets the ears. To discover that, one needs only to read "between the strings." FEATURES: Les Paul, Don McLean, George Benson, Andy Griffith, Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Peter Frampton, Doc Watson, Christopher Parkening, Eric Johnson, Earl Klugh, Jack White (White Stripes), Rick Derringer, Taj Mahal, Chet Atkins—more than 100 artists in all.
***
“I love the guitar. It's still teaching me, and I'm still learning. And knowledge is power! If anyone wants to learn about the guitar, or what we think about the guitar—if anybody wants to learn what it has done for us, and why so many of us still hang on and try to play it today, read this book and you'll learn why.”
—B.B. King
John Schroeter was in talks with B.B. King to host a magazine version of Between the Strings, inspired by the wealth of new stories that emerged following the book's publication. They got as far as a cover concept (shown above), but progress was stalled due to the demands of King's Farewell Tour and other commitments. B.B. King is, and will always be, dearly missed. There is hope to revive the project with a new host in the near future. In the meantime, here are a few selected stories from the book: