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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on June 24, 2014 at 12:09pm

Born and raised on classical music. Threw in some jazz here and there. In the mid 70's we moved and i attended a larger school. There I was turned on to Yes, King Crimson, ELP, and the like. Then to Deep Purple, Cream and Three Dog Night. I was HOOKED! When we moved again I ended up with Kiss, BTO and more. Played air guitar with the old flip down stereo as loud as it would go. Did that for about a year before I got my first electric guitar and amp. Did the band thing. It's called classic rock now. But not when I was playing it. : ) Even played in a Jazz band. That was an awesome experience. Tried Country. Once or twice. Never again. Mostly played lead. Coolest band I was in was Skydog. Three excellent guitar players. We could play lead off of and with each other. Had a blast. The one guitar player, best of us three, had the chance to go pro. Hell yes he took it! Glad for em too. Shortly after that the band broke up.
In the mid 90's I hurt my right wrist and hand. Messed up some nerves and tendons. That ended my guitar playing. I know it shouldn't of. But at the time it did. I was still fighting with traumatic internal physical damage that left me struggling to have a normal life for years. I didn't want another fight. So I gave up. Hard to explain what your going threw. Especially to people who are really PO'd at ya. I walked away from it all. Didn't play for years.
Some years ago I decided to try to pick up the guitar again. I still have problems with my right wrist and hand. Finding ways to work around that. I cam across the Cigar box nation site. I really like the attitude. And the idea of finding sonic variations in open tunings and limited strings really gets me going. I've always experimented musically. Guess it's all that classical and jazz influence. Even got me inspiered to learn how to sing and play the guitar at the same time. Love to make it as one man one guitar on stage. Not dreaming big. Dreaming crazy and loving it.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on June 24, 2014 at 1:10pm

Born in the 70's and raised on classic rock - The Beatles were especially big in my house. Played trumpet for a while in middle school, and was pretty good, but gave it up going into high school. Got my first guitar when I was 16, learned how to play with a friend who was just starting out too.  We played in a crappy cover band in college for a few years, then quit playing for a while when I started out in the real world. 

A while later, I became obsessed with bluegrass, so I picked up the banjo. Got to be OK, learned a few of the classics, but could never pick fast enough to be a grasser.  Too much dogma in the bluegrass world for my tastes sometimes.  "Earl didn't play it that way" they always say.  Fast forward a few more years and helped my niece build a cigar box uke for a 3rd grade science project and found this place.  She'll be going into 7th grade this fall - how time flies.

Never had a lesson besides the trumpet and always felt my playing was lacking.  Now that I've been liberated with CBGs, I've learned more about music than ever before, and I'm developing what I consider to be my own style.  Don't think that would've ever happened if I was playing 6 string or banjo, I would have been too concerned about it sounding "right".  Now I can't wait to pick up one of my guitars and play until I fall asleep, then wake up in the morning with melodies floating around in my head. 

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Permalink Reply by SlowHound on June 24, 2014 at 4:35pm

Born late 60's in Yorkshire England. Military brat. Saw the world before I was 5 but don't remember much of it at all. Settled in Maryland in the mid 70's. Dad loved his spaghetti western music soundtracks and mom was all about Elvis. It would be another 20 years until I could appreciate either of them. My older brother liked disco. It was bleak for me in the beginning. 

In fourth grade I received a set of drums and took to it pretty well but lugging those things around the house alone was enough for me to seek out something else. Taking the snare to school wasn't much fun either.

In my neighborhood of south Baltimore there was a great music scene. The group Crack The Sky played in a basement four doors down from my house. It seemed that every street had a band in the basement but there weren't that many bass players in my age group.  Seemed like a no brainer. Get a bass and I'm in a band. For Christmas in 1982 my grandfather bought me a 1982-57 reissue Fender Precision. I had an older friend who played and he gave me a few pointers, turned me on to Geddy Lee, a few others and taught me 3 Judas Priest songs. I was ready!! I still have the bass.

Formed a band with some friends. Did the metal thing (Maiden, Priest, Scorpions and such) a little punk (Bad Brains, Black Flag, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles and such) some classic rock and had a great time doing the basement thing. 

Then, in ninth grade a new kid showed up in class. This guy was out of place and just not doing well his first few days. He came from southern Virginia to south Baltimore and it was a culture shock for him. He sat next to me in home room and after a few days we talked a bit. He said he played a little guitar and piano and asked if I wanted to come over to his place for a listen. It changed me. This guy at 14 was better than all the other players I knew put together but what really caught me off guard was he played bluegrass and old time country. Until this point I had never really heard or listen to anything like that before. It was effortless to him. He was being a little humble I guess when he said he played a little guitar and such. He had and played everything. Mando, banjo, guitar, steel it just didn't matter, if it had strings he played it like a pro.

Well, I became a country bass player and we played together for the next 6 years until he joined the Navy band Country Current. I still played around with my metal head friends and even crossed my friend over to that side for a spell. We played bluegrass festivals, high schools, bars in DC at 16 years old with some older folks. That's when I learned to hear the music. After he left I joined a touring band Water Shed and played up and down the east coast for a few years and actually made a living doing it.

After moving to southern Maryland in 92 I found myself playing in jam bands and did that until about ten years ago. Grateful Dead, CSN, Neil, Prine and such. My last gig was opening for Peter Rowan and Tony Rice and it was a blast. But, I was tired, the music was stale and I just hadn't had any fun for the last few years up to that point. I left the scene and only recently started making my way back to it but slowly!!

About three years ago, I was ordered by my doctor to slow up. Life was always on the go for me. Move, move, move and get it done. You don't need to sleep or eat right. Just keep living fast. Wrong...I crashed and was in the hospital for exhaustion. That first weekend after being home, my wife enforced the doctor's orders and I couldn't do anything except rest. Yeah okay darling.

Anyway, a few years before, my friend Rob moved away from the area and gave me a cigar box. It sat on the shelf for about 4 years to that point. I needed something to do that wouldn't be too difficult and I had the idea of making a guitar. I had just seen this guy on Youtube named John McNair playing one and thought it was really cool. Had some old tuners from years past (I still don't remember where or who they came from) and set out to build one. The next day I did it. Then another and another. Always liked the sound of slide guitar but never tried it for myself.

I tried to emulate a few people at first but I'm just not a blues guy. Realized this was something I could make my own and just started doing what I wasn't hearing on CBN.

Now I'm hooked forever and I'm starting to get some interest from the local scene to come out and play again.

So, I'm a drummer who played bass masquerading as CBG player or something like that.

  

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Permalink Reply by Rick McKeon on June 25, 2014 at 5:57am

I must be the old guy here. Born in 1944. Studied classical guitar and music theory in college. But when I heard ragtime and blues played on a guitar I was hooked! The first summer music camp I attended (International Guitar Seminars) I was the only one there with a nylon string guitar. As soon as I got home I bought my first steel string acoustic and started having a ball playing alternating thumb style rags and blues.

Recently saw Seasick Steve, John McNair and others on YouTube and had to have one! So I bought a 3-string from Wayne Bigler (my first ever electric guitar). I love the simplicity and expression you can get with a 3-string. I live in Prescott, AZ and there are a lot of old abandoned mines and ghost towns around here. I enjoy going out, shooting some video and writing blues songs. If you search YouTube on Rick McKeon you will find several I did on the 3-string.

I've been posting some songs and lessons on my website. For a bunch of FREE lessons (guitar, banjo and CBG) check my site at https://rickmckeon.com

Rick

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 25, 2014 at 6:10am

Was born in 1959, Eldorado, Arkansas. 90 miles north of Shreveport, Louisiana. Lived there, driving back and forth from there to Eldorado on weekends to see grandparents until age 6. The whole time, we listened to KWKH, the famed Louisiana Hayride transmitter just outside of Bossier City, near nuclear B-52 capable Barksdale AFB, which ran mostly canned reruns of their shows from the 50's. Lots of country, bluegrass, and early rock'n'roll. Which meant Hank, Bob Wills, Elvis, Chubby Checker, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. Then came 1964 and the Ed Sullivan Show, and shows like American Bandstand and Shindig. My Dad took a business trip to Japan, and brought us back transistor radios with a single earbud headphone. I learned how to sing 3, 4 and 5 part harmonies by listening to The Beatles and The Beach Boys nightly under my pillow, and my teenage babysitters were learning to play Paul Revere and The Raiders, Chad and Jeremy, the Everley Brothers, The Ventures and Hank Mavin and The Shadows. Then, my teenage babysitters (well, their brothers) went off to Viet Nam, and came back with Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, and Hendrix. I was always listening to music 10 years older than me, from my friends' older brothers and sisters. We moved to Houston, Texas in 1967, where I also started listening to conjunto, rancheras, Colombian cumbias (my Mom is a Bogotana), the Sir Douglas Quintet, Freddy Fender, Jose Feliciano, The Doors, Cream, more bluegrass, Mountain, and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, though The Beatles and Beach Boys still ruled (Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds!). I also started singing in school choirs in third through ninth grade. Also, the San Francisco / LA sound was floating into my ears from the late night deejays at KLOL and KRBE, with The Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Creedence, Santana, the Airplane...Plus, the Dr. Demento Show on Friday nights. I was 8 when I heard George Harrison in an interview proclaim Andres Segovia as the father of all guitarists, and promptly asked my parents to send me to Spain to study under him, which I repeated on my birthday every year until age 16. I got to play Little League baseball as a pitcher and outfielder instead. During my mid-teens, I listened to lots of Outlaw country (Willie Nelson was my hero). At age 17, I bought a cheap Ventura acoustic 6-string, a Mel Bay exercise book, and taught myself to play first position chords and a coupla barre chords, learned one pentatonic blues box, while writing songs my first week (and haven't stopped since). I started college at Rice U. in 1977, formed a duo with my best college mate which lasted until we graduated in 1981, and learned to play, probably badly, some 250 cover songs from memory, 2-3 times a week. Shake Russell put out Songs On The Radio, I got a copy of Townes Van Zandt's Live At The Old Quarter, and decided I would one day be a singer-songwriter. We played at Anderson Fair and Catch A Rising Star for beer and tips. I became a huge fan of Southern Rock, after seeing Molly Hatchet live at a gay bar, where me and a buddy were the only audience for their first two sets (and they kicked our butts with a fantastic show, teaching me an object lesson in professionalism, after which we bought them drinks and got stoned with them; their manager didn't realize the place had gone gay from when they booked it to when they showed up months later. Not that being gay is "bad;" I am not, but have gay friends). I played college bars, parties, patio gigs, keggers, etc., then I moved to Austin for two years to attend UT, and realized how primitive my musical skills were compared to the bands on each corner near my house at 34th and Speedway. I was down on 6th Street every weekend, soaking up reggae, blues, rock, etc., while still writing and performing my own shit for friends and anyone else I could con into listening. I went to grad school at Texas A&M (Lyle Lovett was starting out there at the same time, but I didn't know him), and started playing, singing and sometimes leading folk praise at church. Moved back to Houston for my day gig as a geologist, listened to lots of Baroque classical at work, and met my wife while in the church choir. Still doing that, played rhythm guitar in various bluegrass, country and rock pickup bands. Moved to Saudi Arabia in late 2002, still playing in church, played in a local blues rock band for awhile here, still doing theater, still writing and performing my own stuff. Found CBGs in 2011, and my regular 6-string playing has gotten hugely better, so much so that I'm now getting asked to jam again. And people seem to like my songs, which I play in a variety of styles because of all those previous influences, chief among whom are Shakespeare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lennon and McCartney, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. I have one album of originals out, the Townes CBG tribute, and another album of originals basically in the can. I'm already working on songs for the third. I'm married, 54 years old,with two teenaged kids.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on June 25, 2014 at 10:39am

I'm 41 and played allthe brass, guitar and piano from elementary through high school. I played the brass ensemble, stage and concert bands. I usually had first chair. Truth is I never bothered to read music well and would often have to ask second chair to hum a few bars off a song I hadn't practiced to get me going.

Dropped music for 25 years until my wife bought me a six string acoustic for my birthday. I caught a smojo video on YouTube and I was instantly intrigued.

I have never sung ever until I worked up the courage here on CBN.

This is probably the first thing I've ever done where I want reasonably on par or superior to my peers in terms of building or playing. It has been a great learning experience and journey. Things like this usually don't stick long with me. It's have to say CBN is a big part of the reason why I stay with it.

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on June 28, 2014 at 12:55pm

Interesting.  I am one of the oldest and yet lesser experienced.  Born in 1950.  Sang in Junior High Chorus and liked it.  Missed it.  Bought an autoharp at age 50 or so.  Could not keep it tuned.   Traded for a guitar.  A friend taught me a D chord, an A7 and a one finger G.  I am forever indebted.   Gradually learned more.  

Built my first dulcimer about that time and later a travel guitar - a crappy one.   Been building CBGs for more than 6 years but could not do much with them until I found CBN a few years later.   Have had a blast with CBGs and now I seem to be transitioning into blues uke, open G 5 or 6 string, standard tuning and keeping on with the CBGs.   A few years of CBG playing did wonders for my understanding and playing of the store boughts.

 

Oh, along the line there, I picked up straight harp harmonica, a little cross harp, tin whistle, rudimentary banjo and mandolin and advanced kazoo.  

 

Sometimes it is a frustrating hobby, but over all, I am having a great time.

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on June 30, 2014 at 3:25pm

I stole my sisters Beatle records. Hooked

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Curley on June 30, 2014 at 5:11pm

They say that those that can do and those that can't teach. I reckon there's some truth in that.

My earliest memories are of the old mans' Chuck Berry 45's and hearing Sunshine of Your Love on the radio as a 6 year old. The only thing I could draw as a kid were guitars, only now I see that from a young age I just wanted to be a musician. Problem was I was no good at it.

So I did other things, got a real job, all that. Continued to learn though, even went back to uni in my 40's and did that music degree that'd been bugging me all those years. Now I'm 50 and can play OK, getting gigs, a late bloomer maybe.

I'd still rate myself as an average player but I'm a bloody good teacher. All those years I couldn't just make it happen naturally so I had to learn how it works and how to make it work. If I hadn't nutted all that out for myself I don't think I'd be in a position to help others do the same thing.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on July 1, 2014 at 12:51am

My story is fairly typical - born and brought up in a Middlesex suburb during the  "baby boom" of the post-war 1950's, still mad on Rock'n'Roll, still mad on "The Blues".

Teddy Boy punch-ups, hanging round Coffee Bars, sixpence in the Juke Box, girls wearing suspenders and stockings, getting beaten up at the Travelling Fair, The Beatles playing The Cavern or the Rolling Stones at the local dance hall, Hotel or Cinema, big motorbikes, Mod and Rocker fights at Margate, scooter boys in Parkas, Mod suits, Carnaby Street, the Who at the Railway Hotel, Rockers at the Busy Bee, the Chicken Run at the Ace Cafe, Ford Zodiacs and Vauxhall Crestas, Flower Power and Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix playing the Marquee.......I blooming well missed it all !!

I was at school until 1969,  but entered the "real world" in the Skinhead era - witnessed the growing Football aggro at Stamford Bridge and on the streets as a biker, literally got "kicked" out of Ruislip Lido by hundreds of Skinheads , then went Hippy and frequented dingy smoky Pub cellars checking out the underground Prog Rockers, something which has stayed but still appreciate the cultures of the previous years, I eventually got to see many of my old heroes including the Who and Led Zeppelin, was a typical 70's Chart follower, a few Festivals....those were the days, if you asked me today what is the No.1 single i wouldn't have a clue.... but i still have "Be Bop a Lula"...!

As an avid music fan I heard and loved many Rock-based trends and fads that come and go over the years;  The Beatles,  local band The Who,  the 'Stones, the 60's white-boy Blues Boom of John Mayall, Cream, Free, Fleetwood Mac, The Groundhogs and Led Zeppelin - Jimi Hendrix was huge, Prog Rock with all its diversity still holds a great fascination for me, and the emergence of Heavy Rock and Metal, Classical Music revealed its magic to me in the 90's, and Post-bop Jazz - over the years I built up a good collection of Vinyl LP's and 45's which still remain my favoured music storage medium.

I saw many bands live over the years including Queen, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and Bo Diddley on stage in London with his big red square guitar which left a great impression on me. After a very messy second divorce and "mid life crisis" in 2002 I decided to learn to play guitar - I had a recurring dream where I was standing on a stage in a huge stadium in front of thousands of people, but froze with embarrassment as I couldn't play a note...

I took guitar lessons from a very good local teacher but was hampered by a hand injury received some years before, and struggled along as a lefty...I also learned the basics of Drums and Bass after almost giving up on six string guitars completely.  I saw Seasick Steve on Jools Holland using three strings, eventually did a bit of research and found CBG's ! 

I messed around with so called  "real" guitars for 10 years and never really got anywhere, i was always pulling them apart as they never sounded right anyway, and the acoustics were so big and clumsy, too many strings got in the way of the music, i could never "connect" musically - i was never even inspired enough to write a song on them, they sounded like everything else - a Gibson sounds like a Gibson, Strat sounds like a Strat, just like all the others...but i still hanker for a Telecaster, a genuine American Telecaster of course, but tuned my own way...! ;-)

 

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Permalink Reply by Reeds Taylor on July 1, 2014 at 5:35am

We were lucky too own a radio when I was a little guy, we had one station Country Western. I suppose that's where my love for Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and that era of country music came from. I was about maybe 9/10 when my grand father gave me an old harmonica that was wore out....I played the hell outta that busted harp...(it was a party in your pocket). At around 16/18 my brother in law introduced me too the Blues.....I was immediateley hooked (Blues=harmonica= COOL!). I played at fests and hootenannis.... for years. I've also had the great pleasure to jam with some of the best in the business...but 2 years ago I came across Cigar Box Nation while reseaching the Boo Diddly cigar box Gretch....and haven't looked back. Up till that time I really never played guitar, although there's always been one around...and to think I would ever build one was outta the question. I've written quite a bit of lyrics...and lately I been practicing my butt of learning how to play a cbg so I can add music too my words..I've learned alot here, and met a ton of really great people. I had lost my inspiration for many many years....and the people here have given me that back....So I thank you all.

P.S

Great topic Sawbones.

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on July 1, 2014 at 6:30am

Then I stole my brother White Album got my ass kicked. So I stole his Subhumans and SouthSide Johnny And Asbury Jukes, Bruce and ZZ Top. I recorded them onto a cassettes with a microphone placed in front of the speakers.

Major influences Merle Haggard , Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine , Bruce Springsteen The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Zep, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Being from Bakersfield Country music is in my blood. 1989 to 2009 is a blur.

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