Sudbury man pens guitar origin stories of hundreds of musicians

Inspired by a friend's social media story about his love for his guitar, a Sudbury man has written a book containing origin stories for 280 musicians, including some iconic rock legends.

Sean Barrette released his first, self-published book Heartstrings - First Guitars, a collection of memories from guitar players and the stories about the instruments that made them, last month.

Sean Barrette has written his first book Heartstrings First Guitars, origin stories of 280 musicians and the guitar that made them. Dec. 20/23 (Chelsea Papineau/CTV Northern Ontario)

His original idea was he was just going to write the stories of the people he knew, but that snowballed into some pretty big names after talking to Tom Wilson of Blackie & the Rodeo Kings.

From garage band guitarists and up-and-comers to famous and semi-famous musicians, the book is filled with stories "about the guitar they learned on, the first guitar they bought with their own money, the first 'good' guitar they owned, or the beloved first-line guitar that accompanied them on first songs, first shows, first tours or first recordings."

"The big names that I ended up talking to was really me just sort of taking the shot. Thinking of somebody I'd like to talk to, trying to get in touch with their management and see if I could set something up," Barrette said in an interview with CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca.

"And people were really, really receptive to it."

Popular musicians such as Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, several members of The Tragically Hip, Serena Ryder and Myles Goodwin, just to name a few.

Barrette said he was blown away when he heard The Tragically Hip had tweeted about his book on Tuesday.

"The support's been incredible, but to have the artists that you've spoken with or who have submitted stories get excited about the book, the fact that they're in it, and start telling everybody else, especially when it's The Tragically Hip man, I grew up listening to them …. It's really exciting," the author said.

To fund the making of the book, Barrette started a Kickstarter campaign with a goal to raise $5,000. He greatly surpassed that with a total of $8,670 from more than 150 donors.

MORE VOLUMES TO COME

As for what is next for the first-time author, he said he enjoyed the process so much he plans on continuing the work with more volumes.

"Oh yeah, it's happening. It's so much fun," Barrette said.

"There were a lot of very intense moments, there were ups and downs, there were points where I didn't know if I was going to finish it, (but) I was encouraged by so many people to keep going with it because it is a unique idea and it needed to be out there."

Heartstrings – First Guitars is available in ebook and paperback.

The book was released Nov. 15 and has sold about 400 copies so far.