THE BEGINNING
As I write this, I am still recovering from the weekend
at Live Oak Music Festival 2006 (Live Oak). Don't get me wrong, it is a
good kind of recovering, but 4 days and 3 nites camping in a VW van 
does take its toll on these ol' bones.
I started packing on Wednesday with the idea of getting on the
road by 2 pm on Thursday.
Yeh, right ! ! ! ! ! !
Between finishing packing and a few honey do's from Caryn, at 4 pm my
van looked like this.
And I was ready to go. . . . or not!
At 5:45 pm the van looked like this. After a stop at the
hardware store and the guitar
store for final building supplies, I was on the road just before 6
pm.
With a sigh of relief, I headed my '84 VW
Vanagon south on Hwy. 101 with less than an hour and a half to drive, I
would be at Live Oak.
As I drove, my mind (or what little of it that is left) thought about
this time last year at Live Oak 2005. I had been encouraged by a friend
to share a booth on the Art Walk. I would be selling my Interactive
Musical Sculpture
(IMS), which is a fancy way of referring to my Cigar Box Guitars, and
other instruments had only been building for about a year and had
never been to Live Oak before. I had never sold my stuff in this
manner, or much of any manner, either.
Oh well, No Guts, No Glory!
My very first customer was, as I was informed by my
friend, the MC of the Festival. Guy by the name of Joe Craven. He bought two of my
guitars and has been a source of encouragement ever since. In fact,
between the help I got from Joe, Shane Speal, and
all the people on the
Cigar
Box Guitar yahoo group , my life has undergone quite a change. I
have been brought back to music and it's great.
Now forward to 2006
The Arrival
Thankfully, it was still light when I got to the Live
Oak camp grounds.
After a quick check in , I was directed to the Art Walk area and
started to unload. The light was not to last long though.
I had to unload or I would have no place to sleep, and I could really
use some sleep. I was beat, even thought I took it slow and nothing
weighed over 40 pounds or so (Due to my disability). It is a good thing
that artist are a friendly bunch. I thank them all for their support
and help.
I was so tired that nite, I didn't even realize that my air mattress
had a leak. Oh, I realized it the next morning all right. Good thing I
put those rubber mats under the mattress. Saturday, a friend loaned me
one of his mattress, what a God Send that was.
Friday
Friday morning I started setting up my booth.
As with last year, customers started coming around 9 am, even though
the gate doesn't open until after noon. It's OK though, as most of the
early lookers are either festival staff or some of the musicians. Joe
and his wife were among my first visitors. As the morning progressed,
and I had what little order I could manage in setting up, I started to
finish up my donation to the silent auction. It is a 4 string slide
guitar made with through the body neck construction. The neck and
headstock are converted from an old hockey stick I found in a thrift
store. The box is a light weight, all cedar cigar box with brass
hinges and latch. The 3: sound hole has a dreamcatcher woven it. As
you can see, the bridge is made from real bone. The tuners are store
bought, the nut is made from a sandstone bead and the fret markers are
old Chinese coins. The tail piece is made from 2 three hole hinges.
Inside (see insert) is a resonator made from a Marie Calendars pie tin
with two 2.5 ohm speakers wired in parallel to a 1/4 inch jack. It was
tuned to open E and came with my print-out and instructions, a bamboo
slide and ivory pick. Along with my logo and serial number I included
the following inscription:
Custom Made For The Silent Auction Live Oak 2006 and
my signature.
OBSERVATION #1
When donating one of your creations (no matter what medium) it takes
almost no time at all to make an inscription of this sort and those
that auction them off have one more thing to up the price. My
experience is that even those that work in the auction find this small
thing 'sooooooo coool!
...and now, back to the story...
Next up was a customer from last year. In 2005 he purchased a hockey
stick / cigar box guitar
and a tennis racket guitar. He flipped on my 4
string bass, and, after catching up on the last year,
he bought the
bass. Said he needed it to match the guitar. He left happy! happy! I
had never
thought about repeat business but I am now.
Later on this
couple came by, talked and left; came by again, left; and
came by again. Each time eyeing my Red Neck Cigar
Box Guitar.
Did it
really play?' Was it electric? Could they play it?' 'Yes, yes, yes'
I
answered as I plugged it into my smokey
amp
and speaker, mounted
in a Cigar Box; tuned it and let him rock. It is
in good hands
now, and if he is in a band, I truly believe he will be
noticed.
As dusk began to fall, I closed up my booth, ate dinner with the other
artists; swapping stories and such. I retired to my van and drifted
off to sleep listening to the music of the last two sets.
Oh! The second to the last act was the Paul Thorn Band. I liked his set
so much I got up and went to the went to the booth selling CD's,
bought one and asked him to autograph it.
Upon returning to my van, I wrapped myself in the arms of Amorphous.
SATURN DAY
If I thought it was hot yesterday...
As I slowly opened and set up my booth, I changed some things around to
give me more table space. Good thing I did, as it turned out.
Some of the other artists on the Art Walk started jamming after
breakfast and one of them borrowed my Ammo Can Bass to jam with
them.
I think we're having fun
now.
These next pics are of most of my customers throughout the festival.
All were asked if I could take their pic and post it on my blog. I only
took pics of those who approved.
Later in the morning, two more repeat customers/visitors/friends saw
that I was there and told me they would be right back. One had a
skateboard and two cigarboxes. He wanted me to build a 3 string slide
out of this stuff, and it had to sound bluesy. His friend spotted my
Whinnie the Pooh lunch box and wanted a 4 string slide guitar using the
lunch box and a wood crutch. Yeh, I can do that too. Never done
anything like that before but, I just knew what to do. Here are the
results.
They seemed pleased, and it supplied me with a good
draw while I built them and as long as they were in my booth. Got a few
inquires from people that saws them too..
It seems that children are drawn to my art. (Yes! it is art. I know
because I have exhibited in an Art Gallery.)
This guy hung around quite
a bit and wanted to learn about building. He was one of two kids that
watched my booth so I could leave for a bit now and then. They helped
me out in a number of different ways. So, anyway, I told him that I'd
give him the parts and he could build his own. That was cool with him.
Soon a couple of other kids saw what he was doing and asked if they
could build one too. It was all right
with me. I handed them a stick and
said, 'Sand!'
They sanded. They drilled. They glued. They were building guitars and
loving it. Soon my booth looked like this: 
Here are some of the proud builders. Best as I could count there are 8
of these cheese wheel box guitars out there.
It was a trip. The older kids were helping the younger ones. Even a
parent or two helped out. As can be seen, they are all proud of their
instruments. My two constant helpers told me they come almost every
year and would be happy to help out
next year.
By the time they were done, I had had two close brushes with heat
stroke. My booth was in quite a state of disarray. Kids were happy. I
was happy.
I'm now working on plans to have two booths, one to sell my instruments
from and one that will have scheduled classes on building. Time will
tell.
I closed up for the rest of the day and kicked back with my friend,
Mike. We enjoyed the evening music and the dance that nite. Then off to
our respective camps.
stay tuned for :
Sunday
