The Alabama Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza 2006

Featuring homemade instrument builders and players from across the U.S.

May 20, Music from 12 Noon until . . . .

Lineup:

RICHARD JOHNSTON (Hernando, MS)
website: richardjohnston.com
Richard Johnston will be returning as the headliner of this year's festival. Winning the 2001 International Blues Challenge, he became the first person in it's 17 year history to simultaneously win both 1st place and the Albert King award for most promising blues guitarist. His Handy nominated, self-produced debut album entitled, "FOOT HILL STOMP" has become one of the top-selling independent blues albums in history.
Johnston's ferocious one-man-band performances have secured him invitations to play blues and music festivals around the world, including Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Norway, Italy and scores of festivals in the states, but he always returns to where he started and will forever be remembered as "the Tramp King of Beale Street".

In 2005 Johnston gained even more notoriety as the subject of a PBS Documentary "RICHARD JOHNSTON: HILL COUNTRY TROUBADOUR", a special screening of which will be presented during the festival by the filmmaker Max Shores.

JOHNNY LOWEBOW (Memphis, TN)
website: www.geocities.com/lowebow
Johnny Lowebow is the stage name of John Lowe, a Memphis, TN, based musician who's one man band performances have been described as "brutal blues blasts" with set lists containing everything from Johnny Cash to punk pioneer, Iggy Pop. Lowe's set-up is a mixture of old drum parts, milk crates, guitar amps and his ever present Lowebow, a cigar box guitar made from two oak dowel rods, a wooden cigar box, three guitar strings and a bass string. It is played with a slide in the old blues tradition, but that's about the only thing traditional about it. Lowe designed the instrument, which in turn was used by another musician, Richard Johnston, to win a major blues competition in Memphis. Since then, Lowe has attained a cult status among blues aficionados and has adopted the Lowebow as his main instrument.

BOZ (Michigan)
Donald "Boz" Bostwick is the Godfather of America's Cigar Box Guitar movement! Boz plays everything from one-string shoe-tin diddleybows to the finest vintage production guitars. For Boz, its all about making music, enjoying friends, and treatin' people right! I'm proud to have Boz playin' a Turbo! Boz's recent home recorded CD "Raw Footage" is the real deal!

CIGAR BOX SLIM with Two Dollar Pistol (South Carolina)
website: www.cigarboxslim.com
Slim was born in Texas and raised right on the Louisiana state line. He got the best of Texas swing/blues and Cajun music growing up. He incorporates a little of both into his style of music. At the heart of his sound you will find Slim's homemade double neck, seven string electrified cigar box guitar. It features a 3 string "Blues" neck and a 4 string lap steel neck. With this combination Ol' Slim can crank out anything from The Rolling Stones to Merle Haggard! www.cigarboxslim.com

GERRY THOMPSON (New Jersey)
Gerry Thompson plays "backyard Americana" on a variety of cigarbox guitar. "I am not a musician " says Gerry who admits to being a "storyteller", adding that a storyteller without music is just a liar...hence the need for the instrument. "I sing sad songs for sunny days" says Gerry...."I think I'm one of the only hillbillies from a flat state...NEW JERSEY. South Jersey...that is....not north. Gerry was a stand out performer at last year's show.

TOMI-O (Hinton, West Virginia)
website: www.orange-enterprises.com
Tom Hartwell, a.k.a. Tomi-O, is a cigar box instrument builder and player extraodinare. His effects-laden performance at last year's event was the surprise of the evening, and took cigar box music into a whole new realm - outer space. He returns this year with an all new one-man-band show that will knock your socks off. Tomi-O will also be conducting a workshop where participants will get to build their very own cigar box guitar.

MICROWAVE DAVE (Huntsville, Alabama)
website: microwavedave.com
Microwave Dave Gallaher needs no introduction to North Alabama audiences. His live performances both as a solo act and with his band The Nukes are legendary. Dave has been incorporating a Lowebow into his solo performances for years now, and though he was not able to attend last years Extravaganza due to a prior commitment, his support and promotion of the event was invaluable. We're very proud to have Dave on the lineup for this year.

DOCTOR OAKROOT (Boston, Mass)
website: doctoroakroot.com
Doctor Oakroot was born in a taxi with no brakes, and, he says, "I been rolling ever since. I rolled right down to Hell, pulled up the devil by his tail and brought back some dark, dark songs."
Unsatisfied with the ordinary, Oakroot's been making his own music on his own homemade instruments ever since he was a kid. Mostly string instruments, and, recently, mostly cigar box guitars. When you get it down to a box a stick and a string, you have music with a rough edge that works at a primal level - nowhere to hide - and anything but ordinary. Rough-edged songs from a dark place in the soul - songs to haunt your dreams. Some would call it blues, but some folks have a narrow definition of blues and Oakroot's music is anything but narrow.

BEN PRESTAGE (South Florida)
website: www.benprestage.net
Ben was voted one of the three best unsigned performers in the world at the 2006 International Blues Challenge and is the only two-time recipient of the prestigious Lyons/Pitchford Award' for "Best Diddley-Bow Player".
Born the grandson of a Mississippi sharecropper, Ben Prestage has been soaked in Blues tradition and Mississippi culture since birth. Growing up in the swamps of south central Florida, Prestage began to mix Mississippi Country Blues with his own brand of Florida Swamp Blues. This muddy-water-meets-black-water stew has led him to perform from California to the Carolinas to the Florida Keys, in large festivals, every kind of bar, and sometimes on downtown sidewalks. Prestage spent some time as a street performer on historic Beale Street, while living in Memphis, TN. He used to share a spot in front of the New Daisy Theatre with modern blues legends Robert Belfour (Fat Possum Records) and Richard Johnston (2001 International Blues Competition winner).
Ben later played slide guitar on Richard's Official Bootleg CD

STEVE NORRIS (Helena, Alabama)
website: www.stevenorris.ws
Steve Norris is a singer/songwriter from Helena, Alabama who has been playing around the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham area since 1997 with his favorite band The Overalls. Before that, Steve was a part of the trio Robyn and the Journeyman Geezers. For the past year Steve has ventured out with country/folk solo performances. Steve’s debut solo CD, Tributes to Family and Friends, was released in January, 2002.

DOUG BECKMAN (Kalamazoo, MI)
Doug Beckman was compelled to learn slide guitar after hearing Elmore James’ 1950’s recording of “Dust My Broom”. He never got beyond open tuning or the blues, but after hearing Richard Johnston play the Lowebow at the Kalamazoo Blues Festival, he was again compelled to try to produce the sound he heard. He met John Lowe at the 2001 King Biscuit Festival and got a Lowe-Bow of his own, and it won him the chance to represent the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association as a solo act in the 2002 International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

There will also be:
A special screening of the documentary "Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubador", presented by special guest, filmmaker Max Shores.

Cigar Box Guitar Building workshop conducted by Tomi-O. Build you own cigar box instrument on site. $25 fee includes all materials needed. Limited to 25 people.

Admission is only $10

The show will be held at Flying Monkey Arts Center
2211 Seminole Drive