performs on a homemade, one-string diddley
bow. Williams/Willie has a new CD, You Gotta
Hit the String Right (To Make The Music Swing),
available on his website:
onestringwillie.com.
On the CBG phenomena, Williams
comments, “Making and playing
homemade instruments has allowed me to
find my own musical voice, and to express
myself without feeling the need to imitate
an established musician. I don’t view the
Click here to hear CBG
performances by Shane
Speal from his self-titled CD
cigar box/homemade music community
as a cult, but rather as a far-flung group
of people from all walks of life who are
passionate and supportive about helping
others to make something that is uniquely
their own...” Williams also records under
his given name, and has also released two
CDs of vintage, historical diddley bow
recordings by other artists.
Ted Crocker is a luthier and guitar case maker
in southern New Jersey. He constructed the
crude but hip solidbody guitar used in the
recent film Honeydripper starring Danny
Glover as the owner of a failing juke joint
saved by a young guitarist who comes with
a homemade guitar offering to play. You can
buy a Honeydripper guitar just like the one
used in the movie. The shape is close to the
famous Bo Diddley rectangular instrument
with a couple of alterations.
Ted also makes a guitar called the Six Banger
(which slightly resembles a Telecaster) with
one single-coil pickup. Shane Speal owns
the prototype, and I have played it. It’s one
badass slide guitar, and it’s priced right,
starting at five hundred bucks. Ted also makes
various cigar box guitars, plus the Terraplane
footboard stomper, wooden guitar picks, and
his own Stonehenge brand pickups, which are
available in one to six string configurations.
You can find Ted’s pickups and accessories
on Ebay, or you can purchase them directly
through his website:
tedcrocker.com.
Ben Prestage is a one-man-band who
plays CBGs and is also an extremely busy
artist who tours constantly, keeping up a
punishing schedule that includes a trip to
Europe this summer. His five rootsy-bluesy
CDs are available on his MySpace page, and
he has numerous videos up on You Tube.
Prestage is also considered one of the
leading CBG exponents.
The Hound Dog from Red Dog Guitars. Photo courtesy of John McNair.
John “Red Dog” McNair is a CBG builder
who typifies the renegade spirit of the CBG.
Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, McNair wound
up in Puerto Rico with his family, where he
builds some of the flashiest CBGs in existence.
His quirky website,
reddogguitars.com, is
a veritable treasure of information, and the
photos of guitars he has built are stunning.
Richard Johnston is a Memphis street
musician and one-man band who plays his
own brand of traditional northern Mississippi
hill country blues, in the style of R.L. Burnside
and Junior Kimbrough. Johnston has been
tapped as the next young musician capable
of turning young people on to the blues, as
Stevie Ray Vaughan did years ago. Johnston
was the subject of a recent film, Richard
Johnston: Hill County Troubador, directed by
documentary filmmaker Max Shores.
Max Shores also recently completed another
documentary on CBGs, Songs Inside the
Box, which features many of the musicians
mentioned in this article. “I really didn’t have
much appreciation for CBGs before I heard
Richard Johnston play one,” Shores remarks. “I
am amazed by the wonderful music people are
making with CBGs, and the level of expression
many builders display. I am also deeply moved
by the joy people have found through these
instruments and the camaraderie that has
