cigar box blues

It’s an instrument that was born of poverty. In the 1800s, North Americans couldn’t afford musical instruments, so they improvised. They took cigar boxes and made them into fiddles, banjos, and guitars. This tradition has been revived and is thriving. Some guitar nerds dismiss them as frivolous. I say they are cool and my new one is the coolest. My friend Mark who builds cigar box guitars under the brand Winston and Fidel, built it for me. I was visiting his garage workshop and noticed this unusual CAO Flathead box and said, “this is the one I want.”  It took him two years to figure out how to build it. The weird box presented him with challenges. But it’s done, it’s mine. Now it’s time to learn to play it.