Cigar Box Guitars in Mississippi...

 I made this photo on the Crossroads Cultural Arts Center in Clarksdale, MS on our recent visit for the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival. Lots of nice local art hanging around and those two cigar box guitars on top of the piano look like ones I might have made.

When people ask me about my music I often tell them, "well the most money I ever made in the music business was making and selling cigar box guitars." Some fun times, like in the photo of going to craft fair days, setting up and playing, talking to people and usually selling enough to make what probably figured up to be a couple of bucks an hour for all the time invested. 

Time moves on. My old red barn painted workshop in the backyard has begun to lean precariously. The arthritis in my hands hurts turning the small screwdrivers required to install box corners and electronics. When I stir up a bunch of sawdust cutting and sanding I start sneezing. All this has taken out some of the fun. 

Every now and then someone says, "Hey I have a good box, want it?" It's nice they remember what I was doing but I have a bunch of boxes, carefully stored in garbage bags where I think they remain in good condition that I should probably give to someone to make their art. Actually a couple of Christmas ago I got some candy in a nice tin and being that I always liked the ones I made from tin for the banjo type sound I bought some nicer than normal pickups and planned to make me one more super instrument but have never got past the planning stage. 

It was nice to see these instruments in Mississippi and it brought to mind a story a patient told me when I worked in nursing homes and would often entertain the residents with a cigar box show. This patient was 98 years old and from Pine Bluff, AK. When he saw my guitar he said when he was a boy in Arkansas everyone black, white, all people had one of these when they didn't have anything else.  

Cigar box guitar, the great equalizer. I'm glad to have played a part in the history and culture.