Strolling home after a gig one night in Chicago, Matthew Schneider, aka Moon Bros., was punched in the face by one young man, while another filmed the attack, presumably to post the video online alongside other "knockout game" videos.

Though Schneider wasn't knocked out in the attack, the assailants stole his prized electric guitar.

Rather than sulking over his loss and victimhood, he took it as a sign to change direction and focus on acoustic guitar.

This is the kind of person he is. In fact, he called it "the best day of his life."His new LP The Easy Way is Hard Enough raises a toast with the same glass-half-full outlook that Schneider has carried from his days as a young guitar prodigy in rural Illinois to his current status as a woodworker and carpenter in Los Angeles.

Throughout The Easy Way... gorgeous, finger-tapped fractals of 12-string guitar tessellate outward and back on this truly unparalleled suite of guitar vignettes that radiate comfort, awe, levity, and grit without the faintest trace of a put-on.