Review: Hanging Tree Guitars

by John Littel

Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021



Hanging Tree Guitars
Freeman Vines, with Zoe Van Buren
Photographs by Timothy Duffy
Published by the Bitter Southerner, ISBN 978-0-578-62403-7
in association with Music Maker Relief Foundation

“Why am I making all these guitars? Well, they kind of make me happy to tell you the truth.” — Freeman Vines

To make good sense of this special book, the first frame is through craft. Freeman Vines is a guitar maker, has been for almost five decades. Hanging Tree Guitars is his story, told through snippets of interviews with him presented in an ethnopoetic format that unfolds quietly and powerfully. The narrative, edited by Zoe Van Buren, and the book’s design reach their creative goal with the remarkable and very well-crafted black-and-white photographs of Vines and his guitars by Timothy Duffy. The book’s narrative, Vines’ guitars, and Duffy’s photographs supplement each other in a unique artistic achievement that is meditative, historic, and well wrought.