Episode Details

You can see the Two Towers in person right now on the BGS enTour 2026. Find dates and locations here: https://www.boutiqueguitarshowcase.com/about-entour

In the summer of 1911, a 19-year-old J.R.R. Tolkien hiked through the Swiss Alps with a group of friends. What he found in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, with its 72 waterfalls, sheer cliffs and snow-capped peaks, would stay with him for the rest of his life. Decades later, he wrote to his son: "The hobbit's journey from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains is based on my adventures in 1911."

More than a century later, Italian luthier Giulio Negrini and Jamie Gale returned to that same valley to talk about what happens when a guitar becomes more than an instrument.

Giulio's Two Towers installation is two guitars built as one art piece, created for the 25th anniversary of the Lord of the Rings films and the 20th anniversary of Negrini Guitars. It captures a single moment from the book: the only flicker of light in the darkest chapter of the story. Isengard falls. Gandalf is rescued. Hope survives.

This is a conversation about Tolkien, craft, pop culture, what it means to build something that takes everything out of you, and why a guitar that can be played should never be chained to a wall.

To learn more about Giulio Negrini of GNG, click here https://www.boutiqueguitarshowcase.com/giulio-negrini-guitars-gng?rq=gng

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.