Some artifacts of our lives become lost to time but live on in our memories. Such is the case of some hand-me-down guitars I once owned. These were the beginner’s instruments that blistered my tender fingers and spurred me to continue to practice as I dreamed of rock’n’roll glory, until I became a guitar player of some competency, if not proficiency.
My essay, “Secondhand Guitar,” is a 500-word piece about some of the guitars that shaped my growth as a musician. It was published earlier this week in the Pittsburgh Review of Books as part of its Object Lessons Impressions series of mini-essays–or “essayettes,” as PRoB calls them–“on the hidden lives of ordinary things.”
I wrote “Secondhand Guitar” thanks to the encouragement of Dr. Margret Grebowicz, the Weiner Distinguished Professor of Humanities at my former employer, Missouri University of Science and Technology. Margret also created and leads the Public Scholars Network at Missouri S&T, and last spring invited me to join the group. The network includes academics, mainly, who want to get their work out into the world beyond academia. I’m all about that, so I readily agreed to join the network, and I’m happy to add “Secondhand Guitar” to my growing list of music-themed writings. I hope you’ll give it a read and let me know your thoughts.
Cover image via Pexels.
