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Regular: $59.97 Bundle: $53.97

Bundle Includes: The Merle Travis Story: Sixteen Tons and Moving Pictures:How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record.

The Merle Travis Story: Sixteen Tons. Authors: Merle Travis/Deke Dickerson. 6.5” X 9.5” 508 pages. Hard Cover. 468 pages text and 40 pages full color. Weight: 2.125 lb. ISBN: 978-1-947026-58-2. Price: $35.00.

Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story is the story of Country Music Hall of Fame member Merle Travis, a brilliant, multitalented, and deeply troubled artist who is widely considered a genius. A world-class guitarist who dazzled audiences with his Kentucky thumb-picking style, Merle was also a pioneering country songwriter who wrote such classics as “Dark as a Dungeon” and “Sixteen Tons.” Additionally, he was responsible for early electric guitar innovations in the 1940s, and was a gifted actor, writer, and cartoonist, among many other talents. This definitive portrait of Travis’s life and career is the result of a recently discovered treasure trove of Merle’s unpublished autobiographical writings, which have been fleshed out with an immersive deep-dive biography by researcher and musical historian Deke Dickerson. It details the highs of a career that began with a string of nine straight Top 5 singles in the 1940s, and the lows of a lifelong struggle with alcoholism that developed into an addiction to pills that nearly killed Merle when he was running with Johnny Cash in the late 1950s. Travis ultimately reemerged to become a Grammy-winning artist who inspired millions and became a music legend.

Moving Pictures:How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record. Moving Pictures:How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record. Author: Will Romano, 6.04” x 8.83” inches 298 pages. Soft Cover. 290 pages text and 8 pages full color. Weight: 1.1 lb. Publisher: Backbeat. ISBN: 978-1-4930-6235-5. Price: $24.97.

There’s nothing like it in the Rush catalog, or, indeed, in the entire prog-rock canon. Stylistically expansive and intellectually ambitious, 1981’s Moving Pictures was a landmark release, one that helped define the progressive genre and that ensured Rush’s place in the rock pantheon. In this definitive account of the album’s creation and legacy, author Will Romano explores the rare alchemy behind a record that continues to inspire musicians and listeners even today.

The key to its lasting significance is the distinctive overarching vision that Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart brought to the album. As Romano shows, Moving Pictures reconciled opposing creative sensibilities to a remarkable degree, giving the record real thematic depth while at the same time rendering it the very antithesis of a “concept album.”

Filled with behind-the-scenes details based on new research and interviews, newbies and fervent fans alike will find this an illuminating exploration of one of the band’s most enduring achievements.

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The Dave Hunter Collection

Save $10 by purchasing this package, which includes includes PRE-ORDER: Fender 75 Years ($50.00 This book ships seperatly the week of September 14th, 2021. Delayed from June 8th), Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster: The Story of the World's Most Iconic Guitars ($40.00) and Ultimate Star Guitars: The Guitars That Rocked the World, Expanded Edition ($19.97). Fender Tele and Strat and Ultimate Star Guitars ship immediately.

PRE-ORDER: Fender 75 Years

By Dave Hunter
Format: Hardback, 224 Pages
Illustrations: 300 color & b-w photos
Size: 9.25 in x 10.56 in / 234.95 mm x 268.22 mm
ISBN: 9780760370155
Ships: The week of September 14th, 2021. Delayed from June 8th.

You know Dave Hunter from the pages of Vintage Guitar. Now you can join him as he traces Fender’s entire history to the present. From the company’s first instrument – a lap-steel guitar produced in 1946 – to founder Leo Fender’s groundbreaking early six-string “Spanish-style” guitar designs like the Esquire that set the standard for the electric guitar explosion to follow. All the innovations and landmark models are here, as well as legendary players who became synonymous with Fender instruments across musical genres. Authoritatively written and lavishly illustrated, Fender 75 Years is the officially licensed anniversary celebration of the company and its legendary instruments.

It’s the definitive look at the Fender’s first three-quarters of a century and a must-have for the shelf of any guitar enthusiast.

Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster
The Story of the World's Most Iconic Guitars

By Dave Hunter
Format: Hardback, 320 Pages
Illustrations: color photos
Size: 9 in x 11 in / 228.6 mm x 279.4 mm
ISBN: 9780760370100
Available Now! $40.00

Celebrate of the history and significance of both the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster for the company's 75th anniversary in this combined edition of Dave Hunter's two best-selling books!

In this authoritatively written, painstakingly curated, and gloriously presented combined edition to celebrate Fender's 75th anniversary, author Dave Hunter covers both of the guitar’s histories from concept, design, and model launch through its numerous variations and right up to the present. The story is richly illustrated with archival images, musicians in action, studio shots, memorabilia, and profiles of over 50 Tele and Strat slingers through the ages.

With its unprecedented level of detail and stunning visuals, Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster is the only book tribute worthy of the world’s two greatest guitars.

Ultimate Star Guitars
The Guitars That Rocked the World, Expanded Edition

On backorder, ships September 6th

By Dave Hunter
Format: Hardback, 352 Pages
Illustrations: color photos
Size: 9.25 in x 8.27 in / 234.95 mm x 210.06 mm
ISBN: 9780785838326
$19.97

First published in 2010, expanded in 2017, and now available in a sleek paper-over-board format, Ultimate Star Guitars is the first illustrated history of iconic guitars and their owners—featuring more than 140 guitars and 120 guitarists in all!

Where other best-selling guitar histories look at the rank-and-file models, Ultimate Star Guitars is unique in profiling the specific favorites of famous players—oftentimes million-dollar babies, such as the 1968 Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix burned at Woodstock and which sold at Sotheby's in 1993 for $1.3 million. Among the stars and their guitars:

• Kurt Cobain: 1969 Competition Series Fender Mustang
• B. B. King: Gibson "Lucille"
• Prince: Hohner HG490
• Edward Van Halen: "Frankenstrat"
• Neil Young: 1953 Gibson Les Paul "Old Black"

From twangy country to scorching metal, from full-throttle punk to sophisticated jazz, and from gut-punch blues to lo-fi indie rock, Ultimate Star Guitars is illustrated with performance and candid photography of the artists with their star guitars, relevant memorabilia, and more often than not, studio shots of the guitars or signature models based on them. It's an information-packed visual feast for guitar enthusiasts!

*Pay no shipping in the U.S. or discounted shipping outside the U.S.