Has any American city so evoked a singular image as Nashville? The steel-and-glass towers of Music Row, the down 'n' dirty honky tonks that fill The District, the hallowed red brick walls of Ryman's Auditorium. And yet, as any true Nashvillian knows, all that glitters is not rhinestone. In Nashville: The Pilgrims of Guitar Town, photographer Michel Arnaud and writer Robert Hicks wander beyond the Grand Ole Opry to a place filled with high hopes, hard work, and, more than anything else, guitars. Likening the city to "Hollywood in the 1920s," Hicks-the consummate insider-introduced Arnaud-the wide-eyed observer-to residents famous and infamous, from struggling pickers still waiting to be discovered to local legends who bask in the spotlight. One way or another, they've all been seduced by the promise of Music City, USA. Hicks names Nashville "the Mecca of dreamers." His opening essay and selected profiles introduce readers to the congregation that calls the city home. Like pilgrims trekking to a shrine, the subjects of Arnaud's portraits have packed their prayers into a guitar case and pointed their thumbs toward, as the truckers call it, Guitar Town. Established stars Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson, fresh faces Nate Berret and Gretta Gains, surprising arrivals Peter Frampton and Bela Fleck-Michel Arnaud's gallery of musicians runs the gamut from bluegrass legends to alternative rockers. Some have seen their wishes come true, some never will, but this wonderful collection of captivating images proves that the journey itself is its own destination.