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 ...

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 ...

One-time furniture maker Greg McKinnon is not so much singing the blues as helping people play them on his unique guitars. The man wielding the axe on one of the world’s most recognisable guitar riffs ...

Ever wondered what you can do with an old box, a piece of wood and a few strings? Music-loving Michael Marshall did and is helping to revive an old tradition of the cigar box guitar. He’s converted ...

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 ...

A cigar box is just a cigar box — except when it's a guitar. In the hands of Gipson Shoemaker III, the simple wooden box becomes a musical instrument worth hundreds of dollars and capable of producing ...