Book excerpt: When nine-year-old Cali Sky Braithwaite discovers an acoustic guitar mysteriously left in her bedroom closet, the muses descend, possessing her for the next fifteen years, tantalizing her with visions of a musical ideal. As a young adult woman she meets Brodie. She teaches him guitar, and he introduces her to KROQ-FM and the musical underground spreading around her southern California home. Together they explore the possibilities of their instruments and their friendship. Cali Sky also makes some unexpected discoveries about the intersections between rock and roll and her parents' hidden past.