Many of the original
blues greats started playing music on crude homemade instruments. In its
simplest form, a "diddley bow" was a single string stretched between two
nails, played with a bottle to slide across the stings to make different
notes. Often, diddley bows were made out of cigar boxes and broomsticks
and looked more like guitars. Inspired by Richard Johnston's
mind-boggling blues played on the Lowe-Bow (a 4-string electric diddley
bow created by Memphis luthier, John Lowe), Elliott started
experimenting and building his own 4- and 5-string diddley bow cigar-box
guitars. He has been using his "Ell-bows" in a band setting to play some
swamp/funk Mississippi blues. The diddley bow pictured above is one of
Elliott's hand-built creations used on 4 tracks of the new "Voodoo Stew"
CD. |