MEMPHIS, TENN. -- — They’re built around wooden cigar boxes, just like untold thousands of homemade guitars patched together across America since the 1800s. But no minstrel-show performer or ...

One of the best things about making music is that it’s so easy to do. There are countless ways to make interesting sounds out of nearly anything if you’re willing to experiment a little bit — just ask ...

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts. A quarter-century ago, when cigar-box guitar enthusiast Pat MacDonald ...

LOS ANGELES — The pages of newspapers, or history books for that matter, don’t runneth over with stories of happy accidents involving chain saws. But that’s just what put Philadelphia musicians Lucy ...

SPRINGFIELD — If you want your kid to be the next Jimi Hendrix, you wouldn’t dare think of giving him several tabs of acid, 20 milligrams of amphetamines and a horde of groupies with loose morals. So ...

He works with the precision and concentration of a surgeon because, well, he is one. But in the basement workshop of Kirk Withrow’s Birmingham home, the stakes are much lower. The ear, nose and throat ...

Ever played a cigar box guitar? The customarily homemade instrument follows the design of a regular guitar. But they traditionally use a cigar box as the resonator. Of course, creative musicians who ...

Shane Speal, whose Snake Oil Band headlines the first New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival on Saturday, started out playing something with a little more firepower. “In the ’80s, I was a bass player ...

For three years, Archie Storey had been on a steady diet of Mississippi blues and was looking for a way into the music. The longtime BeBop Records employee listened to the blues constantly and ...

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama-- "It almost feels like you're playing the air," Hymn for Her's Lucy Tight says of playing her cigar box guitar. "I love how light it is. And we don't need a bass player or a lead ...

HUNTSVILLE, AL. - What is a cigar box guitar? Technically, it’s a discarded cigar box with a hole for a 1-inch-by-2-inch fretboard. A hodgepodge of random items. Perhaps with a leather cord attached ...

Homemade instruments emerged in 1930s, when people couldn't afford "real" instruments Modern revival fits in with DIY culture He works with the precision and concentration of a surgeon because, well, ...