Todd Roth and Roy Gilbert, Cigar Box Blues

 

Common Chords by Randall Hill

Roy Gilbert and Todd Roth

Pawleys Island musician Todd Roth had a dream of a crude instrument suitable for the gritty blues music he likes to play. “My role in making these cigar box guitars is the antagonist,” he said holding a guitar made from a Padron Cigars box. A small button shaped like an eight ball covers the volume knob below his fingers. Roth’s business partner Roy Gilbert sits next to him, the two had just jammed playing a set of songs in12-bar blues. Roth was playing one of their cigar box creations, Gilbert was playing blues harmonica.

Gilbert had dabbled in luthiery for years, making instruments in the conventional matter. “I started building regular guitars,” said Gilbert from the living room of his home. Posters of famous blues musicians hang on every wall in the room.  His feelings were instruments with the tension exerted by the pressure of guitar strings would be too great for a cigarbox. They would collapse and fall apart under the pressure.

But Gilbert’s respect for his younger friend was enough to convince him to give it a shot and the two made their first instrument just over a year ago. “Roy was convinced it couldn’t be done so we did it anyway,” said Roth.

“It’s a piece of playable folk art,” said Roth. “With these guitars we can be as creative or crude as we wanta be. The personality you inject into it allows everything to flow together. They are all unique.”

“After we finished the first one we started going crazy making them,” said Gilbert. “We will make one out of any cigar box we can find.”

According to Roth and Gilbert the making of the instruments has deepened their friendship. “It certainly has brought us closer together. We are family now, I spend my Saturday mornings over here in Roy’s workshop, we make a lot of sawdust.”

Randall Hill

Watch Pawleys Island Musician Todd Roth perform on a cigar box guitar.

 

Watch Roth and Gilbert perform a music-only blues jam with one of their cigar box guitars.

Comments

[Brian Roessler]

A great story about fantastic people. So many people don't realize the historical importance of the early blues and those who were making music with whatever was at hand. Todd and Roy not only are keeping the blues alive, but also a disappearing aesthetic in this digital age.

Thank you, Randall, for this column - and for featuring so many musicians and artists who may not be well known (but should be) by the larger community. You, and this column, have been a tremendous friend to all of us.

[Mark Gilbert]

It takes a man to have lived the blues to be able to Play the Blues! And I know Roy has been in all points in between. Amazing sound from those crafted boxes, gritty with an undertone of old soul.
Love it!
Can't wait to see you guy's live, soon, very soon.
Great article, well captured.

[roy gilbert]

Thanks to Randall and his Videos..I now have a grandson that is totally interested in the Blues...Keep the music flowing Josh!!

[essay writer]

Nice post. Thanks for it.

[UGG Boots]

These are all inter-related facets and fundamental to one another. Much of this, in the end, is rooted in tradition, as tradition is another means of expression and symbolism.