Guitar: An American Life

What was it about a small, humble folk instrument that allowed it to become an American icon? The guitar represents freedom, the open road, protest and rebellion, the blues, youth, lost love, and sexuality. The guitar was picked up by everyone, miners and society ladies, lumberjacks and presidents' wives, Hawaiians, African-Americans, Cajuns, jazz players, spiritualists, cowboys, and teenagers. In time, it became America's instrument, its soundtrack.

Tim Brookes explores these ideas on his quest for the perfect guitar, which takes him to Vermont's Green Mountains. Here, an amiable curmudgeon master guitar maker, Rick Davis, chooses a rare piece of cherry wood and goes to work. When Tim isn't breathing over Rick's shoulder, he tries to unravel why the guitar is "wall-to-wall popular in the United States," and, to a lesser degree, throughout the world.