This is a perfect book for folks who aren't involved in music the way we are. I'm not a guitarist, but I've heard Henderson a few times and seen the output of his guitarbuilding workshop at Augusta, and that's what got me to snatch the book up off the library browsing shelf before anyone else could grab it.

St. John's writing brings you right into the workshop, understanding the stages of construction and insights into the people involved in traditional music. You could go from totally ignorant to very well informed from this book alone. If you KNOW the names of the people involved - and I got a great deal of retrospective glee out of how Clapton himself wasn't a character in this book, or really signify more than a concept - this book is great fun to feel like you know more of the backstory than the casual reader.

For a guitarist who'd like a better idea of how their guitar makes the kind of music it does or has the quirks they deal with, this story can edcucate in a totally painless way. I wish more artist/craftspeople of Henderson's degree of creativity and abilty had what they do documented so completely.

Joanne in Cleveland