Powerhouse Books

Open-String Guitar Chords

Tom Principato

American Axe

Phil Carson

Unfinished Business

Ralph Heibutzki

Tom Principato — Open–String Guitar Chords

Tom Principato first became aware of open-string chords through the music of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, and the “jazzier” extended voicings of Lenny Breau, which intrigued him to begin collecting the chords in this book in 1978. During a show with Danny Gatton, Buddy Emmons, and Lenny Breau in Washington D.C. in 1979, Tom and Lenny discussed open-string chords and Tom showed him sample sheets of some of the more interesting chords he had compiled. Although they had no further discussion, Breau later published a series of columns on the subject in Guitar Player magazine from November 1981 to January 1982.

Finished in 1997, nearly 20 years after it was started, this book encompasses over 4,000 chord voicings. Guitarists will find it a valuable reference whenever something special or different is needed for a particular musical situation.

Roy Buchanan: American Axe

Roy Buchanan left home in 1956 with his guitar and a dream, as rock ’n’ roll grabbed America. For the next 30 years he traveled the country, soaking up influences and melding blues, country, jazz, and rock like no player before or since. He is said to have spurned an offer to play for the Rolling Stones. He rebuffed Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney. Hailed as a genius to succeed Jimi Hendrix, he seemed disinterested. A contradictory soul, his astonishing technique and emotive powers came with a fear of fame.

Author Phil Carson retraced Buchanan’s life coast-to-coast over five years, conducting more than 100 interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, and piecing together the puzzle of one of modern America’s anonymous musical geniuses.

Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton

Danny Gatton was a guitar virtuoso known for his wide stylistic range. With a musical vocabulary that included country, gospel, rockabilly, soul, and standards, he dubbed his own style “Redneck Jazz.” Hailed as the world’s best “unknown” guitar player by both Rolling Stone and Guitar Player, Gatton was a player’s player who never received popular acclaim but who contiues to influence guitarists everywhere. His personal demons and his struggle to reach a wider audience while staying true to his own muse proved too much for him, and in 1994 he took his own life. Drawing from first-hand interviews with dozens of friends, family members, and fellow musicicans, Unfinished Business places Gatton’s musical contributions in context, and documents his influence on those peers who admired him most.

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