cbg review - storage.googleapis.com · page 6 cbg review — cbgreview.com april 2019 and you’re...

CBG Review — cbgreview.com April 2019

CBG ReviewApril 2019

contributors a p.29

Transpacif ic BluesmanInterview with colin John, Hawaii, USA a p.9

Made where it all started...Interview with Greg Mitchell, Saint Blues Guitar Workshop, USA a p.15

When everything is alright!Interview with Ronan One Man Band, France a p.4

Hard not to be musical...Jojo Rainwater, Australia a p.21

The Age of DiscoveryWho knows? a p.3

Press releasesDusk Brothers, UK a p.26Fiona Boyes, Australia a p.27

Post ScriptAbout the Challenge a p.28


EditorialMemphis, Tennessee...

Welcome to the April edition of CBG Review – the online magazine dedicated to cigar box guitar enthusiasts everywhere. This time around, a central theme is the US city of Memphis, Tennessee.

Our first article is an interview with France’s Ronan le Quintrec, who was one of the exceptionally talented finalists at this year’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis – and one of the few French musicians to ever play at the Orpheum!

The next interview features Colin John, who lives in Hawaii, but spent part of his youth in Memphis learning guitar and developing into the gifted musician he is today. Colin calls himself the “Transpacific Bluesman.”

Greg Mitchell of St. Blues Guitar Workshop in Memphis will tell you how the shop’s individual finely crafted instruments, which range from $4,000 electric guitars to $300 cigar box guitars, are “made where it all started” in Memphis. And what a history St. Blues has...

Copyright CBG Review 2018. All rights reserved. Email: cbgreview.com/contactwww.facebook.com/cbgmagazine

So what makes a musician born and bred in Memphis emigrate to Australia? Read Jojo Rainwater’s account of how he left home for the “last frontier” and only then became interested in the music he took for granted growing up. Today Jojo has drawn on his rich background to come up with his own unique style and sound.

Press releases: The Dusk Brothers released their long-awaited debut EP in February; Fiona Boyes has been nominated for the Koko Taylor Award at the 2019 US Blues Music Awards and has four nominations in the 2019 Australian Blues Music Awards.

Finally, the post script provides a little information about the International Blues Challenge.

As always, read, enjoy and share with your friends...

Best regardsHuey Ross


Age of Discovery

“There is no doubt that, these days, cigar box guitars are becoming increasingly sophisticated works of art, with highly skilled artisans producing top-class instruments and also sharing and showing other people how to make and play them.” – CBG Review, July 2017

When did the “cigar box guitar revolution” swing into being? Ten years ago, twenty? And where are we today? Handmade instruments are seriously in fashion all over the world. These days there are countless builders ranging from homegrown to professional luthiers and proponents of CBGs worldwide. Indeed, today’s CBG subculture would probably be better described as moving from a “Renaissance” to an “Age of Discovery” as we see amateur and professional musicians add all manner of creative cigar-box-style instruments to their collections.

One notable difference between the cigar box guitars born of necessity and today’s broad spectrum is that many early musicians used their cigar box guitars to play music before graduating to store-bought guitars. Today it’s often the other way around as accomplished players now turn to CBGs as a means of enriching their music and creating new sounds. And let’s not forget the appeal of fusing art with music. The variety and intricacy of themes and designs is truly without precedent.

We are seeing children growing up with, for example, three string guitars that have been built at home or purchased on the internet and easily learned – strummed with one-

finger chords or played finger-picking style or with a slide. While they can be used as a bridge to learning traditional guitar, it may be that tomorrow’s musicians will not want to graduate to six strings.

Picture the ultimate CBG scene where homemade guitars are the instrument of choice for hobby guitarists, backpackers and street musicians, and where professionals continually feature them in their shows as a popular attracton. Maybe many of tomorrow’s tunes and songs will come to life on them? Imagine people going to open mics and music festivals who are surprised not to see someone playing a homemade guitar! Who knows?

Who knows?Huey Ross


When everything is alright!


“This multi-instrumentalist with a gravelly voice has revealed himself to be not only a specialist of the blues, but one of the best artists in the world in this musical genre! ” – Stephane Cugnier, Ouest France, 2018

CBGR: Ronan, you say you discovered the blues by chance?

Ronan le Quintrec: Yes indeed, I was watching a show about Led Zeppelin and some of the covers they were doing, and I discovered Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton, Bukka White, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf and the rest. I had never heard anything like it and was immediately hooked.

What did you do before that?

I started the guitar around the age of 15 and played mostly American folk music and French songs...

Would you like to introduce us to some of the “members” of your band?

Well, that’s gonna go pretty fast, being a one man band, so there’s me – Ronan, aged 40 – guitarist, singer, drummer, with my standard guitars, dobro, banjo, harmonica, cigar box guitars and stomp boxes.

Interview with Ronan One Man BandRonan le Quintrec, Lomener, France


And you’re one of those unique artists that couldn’t resist building your own cigar box guitars and taking them on stage with you...

Um, let’s say I had little money to buy a new guitar, so I built one instead to do something different. I thought I would be the first to use a cigar box as a guitar body, but then discovered the whole history of the cigar box guitar, of poor people expressing themselves in music. And since it sounded pretty good, I wanted to use it on stage.

“I had never heard anything like it and was immediately hooked”

Would you call yourself a “pioneer” of roots music in France?

I wouldn’t say that – there were others before me, like Marcellus and Tinq8, but I think I’m one of the few Frenchmen who launched this wave of cigar box guitars in France. Today there are a lot of builders, and they appear more and more on stage – this evolution is great!

Playing festivals and gigs all over Europe?

Yes, I play in Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Belgium. I started playing outside of France two years ago and I hope that this will continue – there are so many places I would like to play!


After winning the French Blues Challenge last year, you went on to represent France at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and become the first French blues artist to reach the final since 2011?

I had already been surprised to win the French Challenge, so I went to Memphis without any major expectations – just to enjoy and learn from the experience. For me to play in the United States, I had already won! And then I passed through the rounds without fully realizing what was happening. I finally realized that only a few French musicians have ever played at the Orpheum. I feel proud, I have to! It was a great experience. I learned a lot and I still have a lot to learn – they were extraordinary musicians there!

Seems like you’re on a roll...

You could say that, and I hope it will continue! In the end, I’m just as happy playing in bars as much as in festivals – as long as I can play. Then everything is alright!

I’m guessing last year’s “Lonesome Wolf” album was a big success?

In a way... I only had 500 CDs pressed a year ago, so I have to do another press. I don’t have a single one left, so let’s say it has been a success.

How much do CBGs feature in the album?

On Lonesome wolf there is only one piece – a boogie, very fat, in slide, with my old CBG. There will be more on the next album, I’m working on it right now.

Do you write all of your own music?

All the music, yes, but not all the lyrics. There are songs that I wrote and composed, and others that I adapted like “In My Time of Dying” or “Shake It” (from the John Lee Hooker song), which I play with a cigar box guitar. I totally rearrange the music hoping not to change the true nature of the songs.


You’ve mentioned similarities between blues in France and the USA?

Yes, especially in traditional music, I come from the north west of France, which has a very rich tradition in music – also with songs made to express joy and sorrow, and the travails of daily life – music you can dance to, with rhythms that repeat over and over.

Needless to say, the blues scene is pretty vibrant in France?

There are a lot of festivals in many places. There are also a lot of bands playing all styles from basic roots to the most sophisticated blues.

Once again, why does a six-string guitarist pick up a three- or four-string guitar?

That’s a difficult question to answer... there is the sound, the way of playing – it’s different, more roots. And yes this sound! It’s the sound of the blues, a little slide played on a cigar box guitar and all the old bluesmen are at your side! And then I love playing on my old 3-string fretless!

Do you find more and more young people picking them up?

There’s a lot of them. Many do not know what a cigar box guitar is, but have a vague idea of what the blues are. Lots of people still come over to me at the end of gigs to ask what this three-string instrument is. I’m always happy to explain to them how it is played and especially how to build it!

There are also people in Brittany like Jacques Corre, for example. Jacques organizes workshops that are enormously successful (he’s also putting together a small Box in Bro’ festival with CBG builders and musicians in May where I will have the honor to play.

What’s next?

Well I’m going to keep playing all over! I hope to go back to play in the United States someday. Like I said, I’m preparing my next album, and I’m still sharing my love of blues and cigar box guitars on and off stage...

https://www.facebook.com/ronan.onemanband?fref=tshttps://ronanonemanband1.bandcamp.com/releaseshttps://soundcloud.com/ronblues


Transpacific Bluesman

https://www.colinjohnmusic.netGerald Besson Photography


“This is what Jimi Hendrix might have sounded like had he abandoned the rat race, moved to Hawaii, taken up surfing and let the sun and waves bestow their laid-back highs.”– Michael Molenda, Guitar Player Magazine

CBGR: Colin, would you agree with Michael Molenda?

Colin John: I’m honored that Michael would offer that. That particular track was a deconstructed, reworked version of “Foxy Lady.” I used an acoustic Weissenborn played through a Marshall amp, and gave it a slower, slinky vibe. Jimi is ever-present and will always wear the crown of innovation, genre-bending blues and rock guitar.

How would you describe World Roots Guitar Magic”?

My friend Michael Hill, an amazing artist from Brooklyn suggested that to me. I like music from around the world, usually the rootsy indigenous stuff, and slide instruments are central to that. Indian ragas, Hawaiian Steel Guitar “Kika Kila,” and American blues, jazz, country, vintage pop, rock and surf from the early sixties.

It seems to me to be blues and a lot more?

Blues is the foundation of where I build and take inspiration from – it’s the bedrock of my approach to playing.

Interview with Colin JohnHawaii, USA Photos: Gerald Besson


They call you “The Transpacific Bluesman”?

I like to combine a lot of elements of Delta blues and Hawaiian music; the similarities in phrasing and feel are similar.

Hawaii, the USA, Canada, Europe and India! What’s next?

I would like to play Australia, New Zealand and Japan in the near future. I’m happy playing music just about anywhere – it truly is the universal language.

Tell us about your six solo albums...

I’ve released both acoustic and electric records: blues, soul, rock, hawaiian influences and a little jazz and surf too. I did two acoustic instrumental albums and four electric band outings.

I’ve collaborated with many great artists, including Michael Hill from NYC’s Blues Mob and a lot of blues-oriented artists such as Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Phil Guy, Henry Gray, Big Jack Johnson, Little Mike and The Tornadoes, Teenie Hodges and Long Tall Deb.

“I like music from around the world, usually the rootsy indigenous stuff, and slide instruments are central to that”


How has your music changed over the years?

It’s become a little more diverse. Early in my career it was mostly Chicago blues and rock and roll. Then I started absorbing more eclectic influences as a desire to try and sound a little different from the traditional blues, in order to try an create my own identity. I listen to and study everything from Mississippi John Hurt to Gabby Pahinui, Joseph Spence, Link Wray, Dick Dale, John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Sol Ho’opi’i, The Beatles, Hank Marvin, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, Vishwan Bhatt, and more. The list is never-ending and I’m always searching for new, unfamiliar stuff.

“I’m happy playing music just about anywhere; – it truly is the universal language”

And most recently you teamed up with Long Tall Deb to produce the “Streets of Mumbai” EP and the “Dragonfly” album?

Deb is a friend from long ago. She’s from El Paso and I met her at a jam I was hosting in Columbus, Ohio. I was immediately impressed with her soulful voice and confident stage presence. Her background is pentecostal church singing and, as she likes to say today, “I left the church, but kept the singing!”

Deb is rooted in soul, gospel and blues, but like me enjoys exploring other genres like vintage pop, spaghetti Western, Tarantino soundtracks and related. She’s likely to be listening to everything from Mavis Staples to U2 to Portishead. We traveled to India and Nepal as part of the Himalayan Blues Festival in 2014 and were inspired to write, “Streets of Mumbai” after that journey. “Dragonfly” is a continuation of that record.


With Deb’s voice some of the Dragonfly songs also have a smooth Latin sound?

Deb is a versatile singer and has lately been more inspired by songwriting as opposed to just belting out the blues. She is just starting to explore the jazzy chanteuse style of singing and that Latin type of vibe really lends itself to that style.

Acoustic, electric, baritone, lap steel – how many guitars do you own?

About 15 and they all do something unique, so I never feel like I’m hoarding a bunch of similar instruments.

“I’m always searching for new, unfamiliar stuff”

And a sitar?

It’s a baby sitar, basically a guitar with what’s called a buzz bridge; it creates that whirring buzzing sitar sound really well. Mine was made by Jerry Jones in Nashville who has since retired and no longer makes them. It’s a cool instrument!

Why did it take you so long to add cigar box guitars to your repertoire?

I had actually gotten a crude but functional four-string lap steel with a D’Armond pickup hardwired to the jack about 15 years ago before the cigar box craze took off. It was made by a guy in Cambridge Massachusetts called Washtub Robbie Phillips. My friend Watermelon Slim turned me on to him. It’s a real piece of junky folk art but really rips. I tune it high, usually an open G intervals up to C.So, that serves me well, but my friend Gary


Hicks here in Hawaii connected me with Sarven Manguiat from Culebra Guitars in San Diego who makes top-quality boxes. I am currently using a mahogany box four-string with a mini humbucker and volume and tone control. You can play it finger style because it actually intonates, but it really excels as a slide instrument. The Honey Can Guitar was gifted to me by my friend in Hawaii, LT Smooth, an amazing human and incredible musician. He was in tour in New Zealand a few weeks ago, saw it in a music store and thought of me.Although it looks like a novelty , it plays nicely!

“I never feel like I’m hoarding a bunch of similar instruments”

You work with the Arts Education for Children Group in Maui. Will you use CBGs to teach children about the blues and performing?

I have thought about that – kids are usually open to new things and, since the cigar box guitar is kind of unique, I imagine it would hold some appeal.

Can we safely assume that CBGs will feature in future gigs and albums?

Absolutely. In the past I have used a lapsteel guitar for a lot of raunchy slide parts, but I can see the CBG being used in certain songs where that vibe is required.

*Builders mentioned in this article: Culebra Guitars www.culebraguitars.com

** Dragonfly and Streets of Mumbai are available in Apple music and iTunes under: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ dragonfly/1341144568, and https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ streets-of-mumbai-feat-colin-john- ep/1017052796


Made where it all started...


CBGR: So how amazing must it be to live in Memphis and build guitars?

Greg Mitchell: Oh it’s great! The music history here is just unbelievable. To see people come from all over the world to try and get a bit of that mojo to take back with them makes it even cooler.

And what made state-of-the-art guitar luthiers like yourselves introduce a line of cigar box guitars?

It was an accident really. I saw one in a magazine article and thought “hey, I can make one of those!” So I did, and one year for Christmas I built three of them for my nephews. I still had my original one hanging around the shop and everybody kept asking “what is that?” The cigar box guitar originated in the Delta here in this area, so we thought let’s make a few and they started taking off.

Interview with Greg MitchellSt. Blues Guitar Workshop, Memphis, TN, USA

Did you know?

Did you know that St. Blues Guitar Workshop is descended from the custom guitar division of the “Strings & Things” music store in Memphis, Tennessee? After some ups and downs and ins and outs, St. Blues continues to make quality electric guitars like it did back in the days when its long list of customers included Elvis Presley, Albert King, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Glenn Frey, Dave Hlubeck, Paul Stanley, and, and, and…

The Workshop’s range still includes the original telestyle “Bluesmaster” guitar designed by Tom Keckler and Charlie Lawing. The 61 South guitar is named after Highway 61, the famed route that leads from Memphis through the Mississippi Delta, where Robert Johnson stood at the crossroads. The team is a four-man show consisting of Robert Fisher, Greg Mitchell, Beau Hallman and Greg Hooper.

In 2012, St. Blues launched a line of cigar box guitars for amateur and professional players, emphasizing that they were “not for just hanging on the wall.” The Workshop prides itself that its guitars are “made where it all started” in Memphis, which is considered to be the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll. The “Father of the Blues,” W.C. Handy, is said to have written the first commercially successful blues song “St. Louis Blues” in a bar on Beale Street in 1917. He also wrote “Memphis Blues” and “Beale Street Blues.”


Then one of our old partners took one and played it at a music Messe in Germany and everybody was fascinated by it. That first year, I think we built over 200, then 300 the next. Now I’ve built over 2000 of them. It’s amazing that somebody can make and ship something worldwide that came from the Delta. And that’s why we did it. I was completely fascinated by it and I still am. I learn something different all the time and I’m always looking to improve.

I’ve seen pictures of boxes full of CBGs you’ve sent overseas. Are you still shipping all over the place?

Yep, all over the world, all the time!

And has it changed the scene in Memphis?

The funny thing is, it hasn’t caught on as much as you would expect around here. It’s really caught on in bigger cities like Kansas City and Chicago, but Memphis hasn’t changed a lot. Worldwide, I’ve seen a lot of changes in places.

“It’s amazing that somebody can make and ship something world-wide that came from the Delta”

You’d expect to see local street musicians out there playing your guitars?

There was a time about ten years ago you could do that down on Beale Street, but now they’ve changed the rules about how musicians can play on Beale Street so you don’t see that any more. One of our friends, Richard Johnson, was down there Friday/Saturday nights and he’d have 100 people watching him playing the cigar box guitar. He was world-famous because of that. Now nobody can do that anymore, which has affected the scene a bit.


So what makes musicians buy CBGs?

You’ve got the guys that are going for the traditional delta blues sound, but then there’s guys that are looking for something different. A cigar box guitar with open tuning that you can play with your fingers or a slide is like a whole different instrument, but still familiar to traditional players. People come in here and say “I can’t play this thing – and then five minutes later they’re saying “Hey, I’ve got to have this!” – because they’re so easy to play and they make sense. I’ve seen everybody from folk players to blues players pick them up and enjoy them.

“Five minutes later they’re saying ‘Hey, I’ve got to have this!’”

And what about kids?

Yeah, that’s very important. I’ve been playing since I was about 12 (actually my first guitar came from Strings & Things). Now I see kids about 11 or 12 years old that can already play better than me and I’m thinking the future of guitars is in good hands.

And they’re definitely not just for fun?

Oh no, they’re for real. We took everything we knew about building guitars and put it into the box. It’s almost like putting an electric guitar and acoustical guitar together – you get the full sound of the box, plus, when you plug it in, you get that rich acoustic/electric sound. You can keep the action low for finger style or change the bolt to make the action higher for slide. That’s why I make them that way to let the players decide how they want to do it.


You make custom-made CBGs as well?

We’ve dabbled in them a little bit. But most of the customers just ask for the regular models. They like what they see and they’ve seen them played and they want one. We’ll do a magnetic pickup instead of the piezo or both, but it’s more like extra steps rather than customizing.

And people can walk into the Workshop and watch how you build guitars?

Yeah, any time we’re here, anybody’s welcome to come in.

“They like what they see and they’ve seen them played and they want one”

Do many people walk out with a cigar box guitar on the spur of the moment?

When we were downtown next to Sun Studio, we’d have 20 to 50 people come in a day. At one point we were selling 20 to 30 a month out of the shop to people walking in. But it was also taking away from us building the boxes. We’ll talk to anybody; we’re all about the hospitality and what we do. But since we moved, we’ve become more of a manufacturing-type place where we can pump ’em out a lot faster.

The “Beale Street” CBG must be a hit with the tourists?

Beau went down to Beale Street one day and took a few photos. We picked out one and said “that’s it, it’s going on a cigar box.” The way we put it on is like how you put paper on a cigar box in the first place, so it’s kind of a full-circle thing. We’ve sold a lot of those.


In the same way, we can also put people’s own artwork on their boxes if they want.

And where do you think the CBG scene is heading?

Every year it gets bigger and bigger. Two or three years ago, I thought it was about to level off, but it keeps picking up because there are so many people that still don’t know about it. Our number one selling point right now is Amazon, where everybody can see it. They’ll see a video of somebody playing one and the first thing they’ll do is go to Amazon and punch in “cigar box guitar” and our guitars pop up – quality guitars for under $300 built by guys who build $4,000 guitars.

We’ve also got a new model coming out soon. We were all sitting around one day and decided “let’s do something different!” I see it as kind of the next level of where this is all headed and I think it will appeal to a lot more people just because of what it is. We’re looking forward to hearing their reactions!

“Quality guitars for under $300 built by guys who build $4,000 guitars”

Made where it all started, Memphis TNhttps://www.saintblues.com


Hometown Memphis, TN


It’s pretty hard not to be musical when you grow up in Memphis, Tennessee, when you’re constantly surrounded by every kind of rhythm conceivable – Delta, Folk, Gospel, Rock, Soul – you name it. And then two hundred miles away, you’ve got Nashville and the home of country music. All in the same state no less!

I always considered Australia to be an extraordinary country and the last frontier. So I moved here when I was 30 years old. I had started playing guitar at around 17 – very influenced by Bob Dylan’s gospel album – and

Hard not to be musical... Jojo Rainwater, Melbourne, Australia

mainly played gospel music. I always liked the blues, but funnily enough it was not until I came over to Australia that I grew interested in the music I had taken for granted growing up.

When I went back to Memphis to visit, I would try and absorb as much as I could. Besides many of the old blues artists, I listened a lot to Led Zeppelin’s interpretation of the old blues songs. As I said, living “down under” helped me draw on music that was all around me in my upbringing and culture, and brought it to the surface.


Coincidentally, a friend of mine in Memphis told me about Seasick Steve, which is when I became more aware that people were making their own instruments to create these incredibly bluesy sounds. So I gave it a go myself, and started making instruments. One I made from a hubcap, one from an olive oil can reinforced with roofing tin and an electric guitar neck, and recently I built one with part of a beer keg on the back and a license plate on the front. I call that one the “1950 Virginia” because of the license plate. I call my hubcap resonators “Banjbros.” Then after coming up with my own blues tunings, I really began to discover myself and songwriting.

“Rainwater” was my great grandmother’s name – it’s Cherokee. I thought it would be a good stage name for me because it

showcases my interest in my own roots and the origins of the music I grew up with. I also have Scottish and Irish ancestry too, so there’s a lot of different influences to fall back on.

All this history trickles into my music. In my “Legends of Black Rock Mountain” album, for example, there are songs about Cherokee mountain man Jeremiah Rainwater, or my grandmother picking cotton when she was a little girl, or my grandfather when he was an out-of-work hobo during the Great Depression. I mean there was a time when he used to ride on the underside of freight trains. You’ll find bank robbers and gunslingers in there too. I like to try to imagine what it was like back then and make stories out of it. “Wild Flowers” is a personal favorite.


“All this history trickles into my music”

I was looking around to do the album when I met Richard Pleasance. Richard’s an amazing musician, songwriter and producer, who is highly acclaimed among other things for his award-winning music in film and television. He had me sing a blues song that he and his wife Michelle had written and pitched it to Clayton Jacobson for the film “Brothers Nest,” which came out last year. Then he said “hey let’s record that thing you did on the mouthbow”

and lo and behold he pitched it to Clayton, who thought it fit perfectly for the end of the film. The mouthbow is based on a traditional Native American instrument, but I put a bass guitar string on it and amplified it to get a bigger heavier sound – you can put your mouth on the front part of the bow and change the sounds you make when you hit the string. That’s part of what I do.

“Hey let’s record that thing you did on the ‘mouthbow’”


https://soundcloud.com/jojo-rainwater-646544584

Seven months later, Richard produced my Black Rock Mountain album. Working with him has made me develop and realize that if someone of his caliber appreciates my music, then people are really starting to take notice of that sound. I plan to do another album featuring my homemade instruments and the mouthbow. Hopefully my collaboration with Richard and the cinematic experience is just the beginning of many more good things to come.

Recently I played at the “Second Great Southern Cigar Box Guitar Festival” in Ballarat, Victoria and was delighted to meet other musicians of a similar genre and soak up some of the relaxed layback Aussie atmosphere. The local roots/blues music scene is exceptional and I’m proud to be part of it. It is also a surprise to see how far back it reaches – they’ve been playing cigar box guitars in Australia for around 30 years! No wonder the public and the musicians themselves really enjoy it!


“The Dusk Brothers are not going to be big, they are going to be monumental”– yackmagazine.com“You couldn’t replicate their sound. It’s tough and it’s gritty and it’s quite ingenious.”– foreverbritishcountry.co.uk“Sheer power and presence”– w21music.com“Audiences have never seen anything like them before” – cbgreview.com

Since 2015 brothers Graeme and Iain Moncrieff have been building their dark, gritty, bluesy sound from the ground up. Their visceral live shows have astounded audiences and begun to accrue a dedicated fan base at gigs and festivals across the UK. They use self-built guitars, percussive stomp-boxes with foot operated cymbals, various percussion instruments made from anything they can get their hands on and valve guitar amplifiers built from scratch in their own workshop.

The Dusk Brothers’ long-awaited debut EP “Storms, Rum, Liars and Guns” was released on Saturday 16 February 2019 to a packed audience in their home town of Bristol. The Moncrieff brothers will continue to play many more shows throughout 2019 and have begun planning the recording of their first full Dusk Brothers album. Two songs from the EP are currently available for free at: www.duskbrothers.com

Press release...Dusk Brothers“When we play, it feels like we rule the world” — cbgreview.com October 2017


“Delighted with her recent acquisition of handsome cigar-box and National Resolectric baritone guitars, Australian Fiona Boyes puts them to the test on her latest release. Sure enough, those guitars have plenty to say in discourses with her true-blue vocals. Her songs are conduits of flammable or relatively tranquil emotion.…” – Frank-John Hadley, Downbeat

Fiona Boyes, Australia’s first lady of the blues has been nominated for the Koko Taylor Award (Best Traditional Female Artist) at the 2019 US Blues Music Awards to be held on 9 May in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Fiona has also received four nominations in the 2019 Australian Blues Music Awards, for Blues Album of the Year (Voodoo in the Shadows), Artist of the Year, Band of the Year, and Song of the Year (“Call Their Name”), capping a busy 12 months of touring in Europe, South Africa, America and Australia!

“Voodoo in the Shadows” extends her exploration of the musical stylings of Mississippi and Louisiana, featuring swampy electric guitar along with a collection of unique cigar box guitars and a rare National ResoLectric Baritone. As her friend and mentor, the late, great Hubert Sumlin said. “She’s got it! I’ve played with all of them – and she’s got it!”

Press release...Fiona Boyes “What on earth am I going to do with this thing?!” — cbgreview.com April 2018


For five days in mid-January each year, blues musicians from all over the world arrive in Memphis to compete in the clubs along the city’s legendary Beale Street. This year saw the 35th annual International Blues Challenge. On opening night, international musicians perform at ten different Beale Street venues in the International Showcase. The Youth Showcase at the Hard Rock Café is for musicians aged 21 and under and the finals are held at the opulent Orpheum Theatre...

Post Script About the Challenge

The International Blues Challenge represents the worldwide search for those blues bands and solo/duo blues acts ready to perform on the international stage, yet just needing that extra big break. Affiliates of The Blues Foundation send their representatives, making the Challenge the world’s largest gathering of blues musicians, solo acts and duos. The judges are blues professionals from different countries who have years of experience in listening to, producing, and creating blues music. The Blues Foundation has established a set of criteria by which all acts are evaluated throughout the five days of the Challenge.


Contributors

Ronan le Quintrec started playing the guitar around the age of 15, He says he discovered the blues by chance and was immediately hooked! Inspired by the great blues performers of the 30s/40s (Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton, Bukka White, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf , Calvin Russell...), Ronan sings and plays heart and soul. After winning the French Blues Challenge last year, he went on to represent France at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and became the first French blues artist to reach the final since 2011.

Colin John was born in Ohio, USA, and spent part of his youth in Memphis playing lead guitar in the house band on Saturday afternoons at B.B. Kings’ Beale Street club. After university, he played guitar with the NYC-based Little Mike and The Tornadoes, and later formed The Colin John Band in the UK to play extensively in Europe, Canada and the USA. Colin and Long Tall Deb have been performing worldwide since 2009 to enthusiastic audiences around the globe including the USA, Canada, Europe, India and Nepal.

Greg Mitchell was born and raised in Memphis and is a co-owner and master luthier at St. Blues Guitar Workshop in Memphis. He has been building guitars since he was 15 years old. Since St. Blues launched their line of cigar box guitars in 2012, Greg has built over 2,000 of them along with the high-quality boutique guitars that St. Blues is famed for. As both a player and designer, he’ll say it’s all about putting everything he’s learned from 25 years of experience into building his CBGs and he’s only too happy to demonstrate one to make his point.


Joseph Alan Crum a.k.a. Jojo Rainwater was born in 1962 in Memphis and now lives in Melbourne, where his friends call him Memphis Joe. He grew up with delta blues and gospel music all around him. His parents knew Elvis Presley in high school in the 1950s. It was inevitable that the Memphis rockabilly/blues music scene would impact Joe’s life and career. Since living in Australia, he has performed at churches, prisons, schools, pubs, clubs, community halls...pretty much everywhere that the door opens.

Ross Hewitt a.k.a. Huey Ross was born in Australia in 1953 (the same year that color TVs and transistor radios appeared for sale in stores and the first James Bond novel was published) on BB King’s birthday. Over the years he has worked as a tennis teacher, journalist, translator and editor, and now lives in a village in Switzerland. He enjoys building and playing cigar box guitars, as well as editing and contributing to CBG Review.


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