Hardtail Strat: Guitars, Heroin, Songs and Stories

by Peter Gallway

In Hardtail Guitars, Heroin, Song, and Stories, Peter Gallway traces his coming of age in the electric pulse of Greenwich Village's 1960s music revolution. From shooting rubber bands in Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe's Sutton Place apartment to shooting heroin in the backrooms of New York, Gallway plunges into the intoxicating world of the Night Owl Café alongside the Lovin' Spoonful and James Taylor, through the Troubadour, Mama Cass, the Manson family, and the record companies of LA's Sunset Strip-until the road leads to Tokyo, and finally Maine, where a Fender "hardtail" Stratocaster guitar leads to an unlikely rebirth.

Written in the raw, lyrical rhythm of a songwriter who "thinks in stanzas," Hardtail Strat is a story of music and madness, abuse and opportunity, loss and redemption-and the enduring power of song to set us free.

A Hard Day's Night hits the theaters.

We go to the opening.

How can you not want to feel like that?

Free.

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 30, 2026

About the author

Peter Gallway is a singer-songwriter, performer, and record producer with thirty albums and more than fifty production and special projects to his credit, including Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro, and works for film and musical theater. He performs around the world both solo and with his band, collaborates with synthesist Harvey Jones as the electronica ensemble Parker Gray, is married to singer-songwriter Annie Gallup, whom he collaborates with in the folk/ Americana duo Hat Check Girl, and has published the poetry collection Big Mercy. He is a licensed psychotherapist in Maine and California.Peter and Annie live on the central coast of Maine.

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir is raw, hard-hitting and filled with insight, music, humanity, and humor. If you know Peter Gallway's music - and if you don't, you should - you'll understand what I mean. Written loosely in verse (which feels so right, with Peter a brilliant poet and songwriter) iI could hear Peter's voice throughout - his rhythm, his cadence. as he lays out a narrative that's intentionally not linear or chronological . This is how memory rises to the surface, as not-so-random points of light. I'm glad Peter wrote it this way - to descend into relentless darkness of his "lost" years of addiction - opportunities given and blown, relationships forged and fractured - would be too painful. Just as he creates a varied set list with peaks and valleys when he performs, Peter knows when to change the subject, and lighten up. Peter might not put it this way - but in getting his life together (as e has) he has defied the odds and given so many the gifts of his talents. IN the end, the book - for all its grit -is uplifting and, really, a terrific read.