Gerry Reyes receiving his “Angel” guitar, Brownsville Texas, 2009. When the prospective owner of this $8,000 Sheppard guitar passed away on the very day he was to take delivery, Sheppard searched for a deserving student, and donated the guitar to Reyes.

John Fahey, one of Sheppard’s guitar idols, with an early Sheppard Hawaiian guitar (on left).

The “Camino” guitar. (image 1 of 2)

The “Camino” guitar. (image21 of 2)

Bicycling in Northern France. That’s cider, not champagne, not that it would have mattered.

Rising to the occasion when a bridge washed out in South Africa, March 2000.

The good ship Duyfken, on which Sheppard signed on as a navigator after his around-the-world bicycle adventure was ended by a drunken driver.

Examining Barrios’ guitar at the Cabildo Museum.

The locals welcome Sheppard and the Cabildo Museum staff to the birthplace of Barrios, San Juan Baptista, Missiones, Paraguay May, 2005.

A Sheppard guitar at the Barrios tribute in 2005. “When the sound system went down, and the guitar still could be heard over the grand piano, I knew I was on to something."

What it’s really like in the workshop of Federico Sheppard. (Cartoon by Guillaume Teel of France)

The entrance to Santos Hernandez’ shop in Madrid, Spain, now in disrepair.

Pepe Romero at the entryway to Sheppard’s garden, 2006. “Down the staircase to that shop, I have a collection of dead guitars turned into bird houses. I am always accepting more of them, and it is a great way to check the durability of finishes. Just leave the guitar outside through a dozen Wisconsin winters.”