Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar

A new CD, Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar goes on sale today. It's a collection of some pretty wild music played on guitars made from cigar boxes (and other boxes, cookie tins, etc.)

Since one of my tunes - Tree 'Fo' a Hurricane is on the disk, I was able to get an advanced copy and have been listening to it in the car. It's just, hands down, some great stuff.

The CD starts off with James Albert, aka Beans Hambone, in the earliest known recording of a cigar box instrument (it's probably a 5-string banjo built from a cigar box). This recording alone is worth the purchase price of $10.

From there the program continues with modern recordings of modern cigar box players.

Some highlights are Gerry Thompson - an excellent songwriter playing live at this year's Cigarbox Guitar Festival, Bazookahosen - an avant garde jazz quintet from Denmark who use a cookietin banjo on some songs, and, of course, producer Shane Speal's band, Jug Fusion. Well, there are about 20 other "highlights" on the CD. Every track is a "must hear."

Producer Shane Speal likes to sell his records on ebay... so, for the next ten days, here's where you can buy Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar.

All proceeds from the sale of this cd will go to the non-profit National Cigar Box Music Foundation.