Tom
Principato first became aware of open-string chords through the
music of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis and later in the jazzier
and extended voicings of Lenny Breau, intriguing him to begin
collecting the chords in this book in 1978. During a show with
Danny Gatton, Buddy Emmons, and Lenny Breau in Washington D.C.
in 1979, Tom and Lenny discussed open-string chords, and Tom showed
him some sampler sheets of some of the more interesting chords
he had compiled. Although they had no further discussion, Breau
later published a series of columns on the subject in Guitar
Player magazine from November 1981 to January 1982.
Finally, nearly 20 years after it was started,
this book was finished in 1997, encompassing over 4,000 chord voicings.
Guitarists will find it a valuable reference whenever something
special or different is needed for a particular musical situation.