San Diego

   I just got back from a cool trip down to San Diego. I was down there because one of my suppliers, Sector 9, invited us down for a sales meeting. It is always fun down there so I was exited to go. I was even more excited because the good ol’boys at Sec9 got us tickets to see a Hank III show. Hank pretty much annihilates the stage and is always a high-octane performer. If you ever get the chance to see him, don’t pass it up.

   Another thing that I was looking forward to doing while I was down there was getting to jam with my friend Rob Molt, who I had made a guitar for earlier this summer.

   He was so stoked on his guitar but since he had no one to jam with or give him a few pointers, his guitar was becoming more of an art/conversation piece. Well, we can’t have that now, can we. So on the second evening of the trip I invited Rob back to my hotel room and after a few pointers, a great jam ensued. Rob hadn’t realized how easy these things can be to play and was ripping by the end of the night.

A little cigar box jammin

Check out how hyped Rob is!

   So after three days of partying, skating, and a little work, it was time for us to head back north to Vancouver. Of coarse in my hazy state, I miss read our itinerary and we missed our flight. Our 4 hour trip now became a 12 hour trip. Dang! We now had to fly 3 hours to Denver, spend 6 hours on a layover, and then fly 3 hours to Vancouver. 

   Not to be discouraged, we made the best of it and my co-worker Cam and I took turns noodling around on my cigar box. Before we knew it, we were on a plane and headed home.

Cam can jam!

It didn’t take Cam to long to figure out how to get a little boogie goin on. A good trip with alot of fun playing!

A couple of traditional tunes

    As I explore this old country blues world I have emersed myself in, I keep coming across some great old traditional songs. Some of them I have heard covered by contemporary bands and did not know they were older songs that these musicians had heard and learned, and some I have never heard before.

    “Oh Death” I first heard on that great Coen Bros. movie “Oh Brother, where art thou?”. With a peaked interest I typed it into youtube and found a number of versions of it. Ralph Stanley is probably has the most famous version of it (I am pretty sure he performed it for the aforementioned movie). Davis Lindley does a great version of it as well but the one that has stuck with me the most is by a little known multi-instumental named Lauren O’Connel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLkWyuW2JTg

    Though my version is nowhere near as good as Laurens, I thought I would sit down and record anyhow.

    Recorded in 1947 by Allen Lomax an the Mississippi Parchman Prison by a Labour camp, “Black Woman” is a great example of the work songs of that era.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0LZiTPTsxc

    While the original lyrics are about not wanting “no jet black woman”, i felt in this day and age, and considering my caucasian heritage, that I would change the to read “no thick-skinned woman”. It’s a little less offensive. I also strayed a bit from the original tune and noodled around on my Cigar Box Guitar while singing it. I used my recently made “D” guitar in an open E tuning.

HollowBelly

    So I have joined this on-line community of Cigar box players called cigar box nation. It is a pretty wild online community full of passionate and talented people all infatuated with the cigar box guitar. I go on there quite frequently and check out what people are building and playing. Check it out if you have some time and a care for such a thing. I am on there as WSBLUESBOX of coarse! what else would I go as? 

www.cigarboxnation.com

    So I was recently perusing around through the recent video posts and came across this guy from somewhere in the UK. His stage name is HollowBelly and I was really taken by his style of playing. His stuff is high quality, production wise, and really rockin. He has a little bit of a Sea Sick Steve to him but an originality all his own as well. These three videos were my personal favorites. check him out and let me know what you think. Generally I like the more old timey country blues stuff, but I also really enjoy hearing what other people can come up with on these things.

    This one had a good groove. I like how he is a bit of a one man band

    This is the song that turned me onto HollowBelly. Again a sick stompin groove.

    This one isn’t on a Cigar box guitar but it is only strung up with three strings. It has the cigar box feel and is really good so it made the cut.

Special Rider Blues

   Although quit a number of old blues artists have sang a version of the Special Rider, Its the Skip James version that really took ahold of me. Skip Nehemiah James came from the Mississippi delta, Bentonia to be exact,  and was part of the generation of blues artists that sprung up under the wings of Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Henry Stuckey, and Furry Lewis to name a few. After his initial 1931 recordings, he slipped away into obscurity until his rediscovery in 1964.

    Skip voice was very haunting and it matched his peculiar E minor tuning. He was very secretive about his playing and tuning techniques and would often stop playing or turn around if he knew another bluesmen was watching what he was doing.  Skip music is very unique compared to his counterparts and although he was a great guitar player he was equally talented at playing the piano. He influenced a number of musicians including Robert Johnson and more currently, Bonnie Rita, among a host of others. Skip is a personal favorite of mine and I have learned a bunch of his tunes on guitar, resonator, and now the cigar box. This is a version of “Special Rider Blues” I came up with in open E tuning.