Sometime in 1976 or 1977, a Navy Utilitiesman in Port Hueneme, California purchased a Yamaha FG-75-1 steel string acoustic guitar from a mail order catalog. The guitar, which I am looking at right now, has a black label inside the body that reads:

When considering a story of the relationships between forests, trees, instrument making, and global change, the biggest question is where to start. I will attempt to dodge that question by starting with any and all of them, letting the reader and listener navigate between the threads of natural history and climate change, land-based livelihoods and global economies, artisanal and advanced manufacturing, and the interplay between musicians, composers and embodiments of sound.