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 ...

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 ...

Musician Speal shares his decades of experience in building, playing, and customizing classic DIY instruments in this delightful guide. It was hearing Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House” that caused him to ...

It has been said that no zydeco band is complete without a rubboard and an accordion. But deep in the birthplace of zydeco, an exhibit at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center features a different type ...

The pages of newspapers, or history books for that matter, don’t runneth over with stories of happy accidents involving chainsaws. But that’s just what put Philadelphia musicians Lucy Tight and Wayne ...