Guitar Breaks
A blues/rock odyssey tracing the journey of Rose, an electric guitar, through ‘50’s USA. Her story unfolds through the hands, and fingers, of her various owners;
Cliff, a country picker who, working as a sideman for Hank Williams, enjoys a backstage musical encounter with a young Elvis;
Josh, a songwriter who records with legendary producer Sam Phillips at Sun Studios and argues civil rights strategies with Martin Luther King;
Zac, a young New York based blues guitarist who tours with Big Joe Turner and travels with Buddy Holly during the final stages of his ill-fated tour in 1959.
Guitar Breaks, a musical composite of Zelig meets Forrest Gump, offers the listener an insight into ‘50’s USA and, through the 32 songs included in the audio-book, gives a glimpse of the early forms of rock, country and soul music that excited and influenced the youth of that generation.
The Author
John Hamilton, born in Glasgow, has been a musician for most of his life. Starting at age six with piano lessons from his mother, and acquiring his first guitar when he was thirteen, John began to play professionally when he was sixteen. For the past forty years he has owned and managed EQ Studios in West London. The service he offers is designed for songwriters, where John brings his skills as a producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist (not to mention psychologist!), to help bring his clients’ songs to final fruition.
He has played with many musical groups over the years and enjoyed a UK top-twenty hit with Sham Rock’s dance mix of the Irish traditional song ‘Tell Me Ma’ in 1999.
His first love, however, is the music of the 50’s and ‘60’s, and it is this fondness that he brings to Guitar Breaks, which he produced at EQ Studios.