To bottleneck or not to bottleneck, that is the question;
whether it’s nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of playing slide guitar alone,
or to join arms with like-minded guitarists
and by playing all night, improve. To play, to sleep;
no more; and by playing we live beyond
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to — ‘tis a community
devoutly to be wish’d. To play, to celebrate;
to celebrate, perchance to live. Ay, there’s the rub,
for in that celebration of life what gigs may come,
when we have shuffled away from this historic Fort,
will give us delight. There’s the pursuit
that makes the bottleneck style of guitar
for whom would risk moving beyond
th’ finger-on-fret style–so wrong, so limited,
the pangs of no slide.