Cigar Box Guitar Raffle
Winner Annouced
2023 Season Raffle Winner Announced
The draw took place this evening, drawn by Mr Vince Lee (of Vince Lee and Sophie Lord fame). Ticket No.73 makes Mark B of West Dorset the winner of the Cigar Box Guitar.
Vince put it through its paces during the gig, proving it sounds fabulous, after which, Vince was presented with the guitar by the winner to take with him on tour. We will follow it with interest!
The Back Story (or is it?)
The origins of this cigar box guitar are not known for certain. There are rumours of the guitar arriving in Evershot many years ago after a mysterious, ghostly white figure was seen at midnight surrounded by a cloud of smoke and fire. The legend has it that this otherworldly figure found the guitar hanging from a tree at a crossroads near Holywell. However, Evershot Bakery’s Steve Crate disputes this theory, claiming that he was riding his bicycle home from a late night baking competition in Dorchester, when a sack of flour which had been carefully balanced on his bike’s handle bars split open, and following the excitement, he had merely stopped for a smoke while considering the merits of Kabuki theatre and the meaning of life.
According to Arthur Negus, the guitar’s age and provenance are unclear, and its history is mired in myth, fantasy and very silly stories. The maker of the guitar is not known for sure but, after consuming several pints and a pickled egg at The Acorn Inn, some people say it was most likely crafted by an itinerant luthier called Shellac De Bajo, sometime after Robert Johnson made his famous 1936 recordings in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio Texas, and probably sometime before the bizarre crochet accident which ended his life on the eve of presenting the first series of Ask The Family on BBC 1 in 1967. However, this story, like many others, is unconfirmed.
Exquisite ebony, beautiful Brazilian rosewood, and resonant Sitka spruce are just some of the tone woods that haven’t been used to make this three-string cigar box guitar, which can be seen and heard before it is raffled to raise funds for Evershot Parish Hall. The guitar does have dot fret markers of finest abalone shell, and some believe that the abalone shell used to make them was retrieved from the stomach of an octopus found inside the stomach of a white whale called Moby. However, Moby denies this, and has asked for his privacy to be respected while he continues to make largely irrelevant and indifferent electronic music.
Cigar Box Guitar
This particular cigar box guitar can be played quite effectively as an acoustic instrument, although in a recent Guitar Monthly review, Zoroastor, prophet of the Zoroastrian faith and tricky but ill-disciplined left winger during Ron Atkinson’s managerial reign at Aston Villa in the early 1990’s, is believed to strongly advocate playing it through a Dumble Overdrive amplifier at high volume, with some reverb added for the full quasi-religious experience. Who are we to argue with a religious deity who Alan Hansen probably described as “having an abundance of pace, and a left foot that could peel a satsuma in a paper bag”?
A song titled ‘Blues In The Box’, has been written for, and played on, this very rare guitar. It was recorded with a poignant, slightly whimsical review possibly by Whispering Bob Harris, and it can be heard at Evershot Hall if you attend the gigs, buy a raffle ticket, and ask nicely.
As mentioned, the instrument was raffled to raise much needed funds for Evershot Parish Hall.
Thank you so much to all who came and took part in the raffle. We look forward to see what happens next year.
Bye for now.
Ed.