Hanging Tree Guitars: The Wood's 'Not Good, Not Bad, Not Ugly - Just Strange'

A new book and museum exhibition celebrate the work of North Carolina luthier Freeman Vines. His handmade guitars are crafted from found materials and hunks of old wood, including some from a tree once used for a lynching.

"There was something about that wood that was mental, spiritual," Vines says.

It made him uneasy working with the black walnut – acquired from an elderly white man, something that had likely been passed down as a memento.

"Working with that wood was a spiritual thing," he says. "Not good, not bad, and not ugly. But just strange."

Photographs of the guitars and Vines' story are the subject of the book Hanging Tree Guitars which features photographs by Timothy Duffy, president of the Music Maker Relief Foundation – a group that provides aid for aging musicians.

Duffy spent five years visiting Vines, now 78, and taking pictures of the artist and his guitars.