BOOKS

Memoirs and published works, part of the larger Rock n Roll Highway story.

Guitarlo: An Illustrated Memoir, book cover

An Illustrated Memoir

Guitarlo

Thirty vignettes from a life lived between worlds.

Guitarlo is a collection of stories, encounters, memories, and observations gathered from six decades of an unconventional life—from childhood and poetry to rock ‘n’ roll, songwriting, artist management, marriage, fatherhood, and eventually a new life in Indonesia.

The stories move freely through time and geography, connecting music, art, adventure, tragedy, humor, spirituality, and the sometimes absurd circumstances of being alive. From the American counterculture to South Africa during Mandela’s election, from the rock ‘n’ roll world to a villa in Bali, Guitarlo is ultimately about reinvention—and the people and experiences that shape us along the way.

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What Readers Are Saying

“Arlo certainly has a story to tell, and in that story I see how he chose to live ‘in spite of’ how he was raised; against the draw to just be a useful member of society and shut up. … I no longer believe that we have a purpose in life. That change of perspective then places the making of that purpose squarely into our own hands as we define what we will do with this one small life we have. How Arlo has chosen to define his purpose is certainly a story well worth listening to.”
Terry Houser
“We share a similar timeline lived in different directions.”
“Guitarlo often reads like good fiction, a mix of adventure, suspense, even murder mystery, along with philosophical digressions and personal memoir that take us back to Hennings’ runaway teen years and forays into the music world. … He would later form a band in the late 1970s called Vitamin Q and eventually work as a manager for Shawn Phillips. … Today, in Indonesia, Hennings stays engaged with the music in that part of the world, a long way from his beginnings in Minnesota, but still dedicated to his first love.”
David R. Rathbun
“A Lasting Love of Music”

See & Hear Guitarlo

Watch Arlo Hennings read from Guitarlo in live and broadcast performances.

Live Performance Reading from Guitarlo — video thumbnail

Live Performance Reading from Guitarlo

A reading from my book Guitarlo at Gila Days (“Crazy Days”), an arts festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Sponsored by renowned Indonesian artist Heri Dono, the festival drew approximately 2,000 people. I was the first foreigner to read from a book in English at the festival. The band collaborating with me was Railroad Therapy.
Reading from Guitarlo at KFAI Radio Write On — video thumbnail

Reading from Guitarlo at KFAI Radio Write On

Arlo Hennings reads from Guitarlo on the KFAI Radio Write On program.
SOLO: 10 Years in Bali, book cover

10 Years in Bali

SOLO

Ten years in Bali. True stories of magic, heroes, and murder.

SOLO: 10 Years in Bali chronicles Arlo Hennings’ life as an outsider navigating a very different world. What begins as an escape to what appears to be a dream island becomes an often funny, unsettling, and ultimately transformative journey through Indonesian culture, spirituality, relationships, business, loss, and survival.

Hennings doesn’t present Bali as simply paradise. Alongside its beauty are cultural misunderstandings, isolation, the difficulties of running a business, encounters with the supernatural, and the emotional wounds that follow him there. The result is a candid look at what happens when an outsider tries to find a place in a faraway utopia.

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What Readers Are Saying

“Hennings does not romanticize Bali, nor does he condemn it. He bares it honestly. The result is a culturally rich and deeply human collection that offers rare insight into the struggle of an outsider searching for belonging in a place that is both paradise and illusion.”
Elisabeth Giovanni
The Jakarta Post
“Arlo paints both landscape backgrounds and his subject matter with a seamless flow of colorful words, similar to how an accomplished artist applies precise brush strokes to a canvas. This book is a real ‘page turner’… from the grueling physical ordeal of international travel, the integrating into a foreign culture, while at the same time fending off its indigenous biological environment, where he experiences both the pain of horrific loss, and the joyful aspects of love along the way! … This is a collection of true stories, coupled with insightful commentary into the nuances of Bali culture, a short read at an attractive price, worth every penny! I really enjoyed it!”
Razzledazzle
“A Stranger in Paradise”
The Illustrated Soul: Stories from the Songs of Time, book cover

Advance Reading Edition

The Illustrated Soul

Stories from the Songs of Time

Seven stories about people caught at the strange intersections of love, loss, belief, desire, death, friendship, and chance. They begin in America and Indonesia—in guest houses and villages, at weddings and funerals, in moments of intimacy, confusion, danger, and unexpected grace.

Some are funny. Some are unsettling. Some are difficult to explain. Together they form a portrait of a life lived far from where it began, and of the people who crossed its path.

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More books from the Rock n Roll Highway are on the way.