Customer Reviews

One String Blues

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These recordings are all that exists of street musician Eddie Jones' music. Playing a home made instrument akin to the African diddleybow, Jones' Delta inspired blues sounds primative and authentic. Jones shares this CD with another street musician, Edward Hazelton, who accompanies himself alone on harmonica to interesting effect. If you're wanting something original and authentic, this is about as unique as it gets.

i like this cd. it is truly unique. the music created by this homemade instrument is exceptional. there is even a diagram of a diddley bow drawn on the inside cover, in case, i guess, someone would like to make one. (actually playing it though,would probably be much harder than it looks.) it's hard to believe that something made from a 2x4, a piece of wire, and an empty paint can can sound like that. i am a blues musician and have a large collection of blues music. this cd just about completes my slide blues collection. the songs themselves aren't that great, and there's a lot of talking also. that's why i would only recomend buying this cd to someone who is a serious collector. i don't think the average "joe" would dig it too much. in other words, if you're looking for stevie ray vaughn, you got the wrong cd. jersey slim

I bought the album "One String Blues" at Shane Speal's suggestion almost three years ago, and it is truly a gem. I instantly fell in love with the raw sound of Eddie "One String" Jones' diddley bow, and from the information on the first track of Jones describing his instrument and the information and pictures in the CD liner notes, I built my own version of Eddie Jones' instrument and taught myself to play it in his style--it is now my main instrument.

Slide guitar does not get any more primal than this--a board, two nails, a length of broom-wire with a little bottle and scrap of wood to tension the wire. The rhythm is beat out on the string with a stick, and a whiskey bottle is used to change the pitch of the string. Simple in concept, but in order to get coherent music out of the instrument, the performer must pay attention to many subtleties. Jones makes masterful use of left-hand damping to obtain driving rhythms, bottle rolls (jumping the half-pint whiskey bottle from one edge to the other to make a 2-3 half-step change in pitch) and extensive use of the open string as a pedal note to maintain a tonal center. The man was a genius!

"One String Blues" is one of those very rare recordings that really can change your life. If you can find a copy do not hesitate to buy it. Thanks for recommending it, Shane!

More information on diddley bows and diddley bow players (including Eddie "One String" Jones) can be found in the article by Dr. David Evans in Afro-American Folk Art and Crafts (Center for the Study of Southern Culture Series). This book also contains an article on Lewis Dotson, another diddley bow player.

Commercial recordings of traditional diddley bow players are relatively rare. Other recordings which include one or two cuts of diddley bow music include: One String Sam ("I Need $100" and "My Baby Oooh")Rural Blues, Vol. 1, Napoleon Strickland ("Key to the Blues") Bottleneck Blues, Lonnie Pitchford ("Real Rock Music: Crawlin' Kingsnake" and "My Babe") All Around Man, Willie Joe Duncan ("Unitar Rock") Teen Beat, Vol. 4("Twitchy" and "Cherokee Dance") The Specialty Story and Compton Jones ("Shake 'Em On Down") Afro-American Folk Music from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi. Many of these recordings are out of print. Snap up a copy when you can find one. Two excellent videos that include traditional diddley bow players are American Patchwork: The Land Where the Blues Began and Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads.

I love a lesson in simplicity. It's unreal how much music Mr. Jones could get out of one string and a whiskey-bottle slide. Take a listen (the samples of tracks 1 and 2 are only of him speaking, so look further); if this is not too raw for you, buy the album.

Eddie "One String" Jones was discovered in LA's Skid Row carrying a instrument made from a 2x4 plank, a single broom wire, bottles and a paint bucket. The instrument was unmistakably a 'diddley bow,' the fabled one-string instrument played by poor children in the South.

But Eddie wasn't a child...and he wasn't anywhere near the Mississippi Delta. He was an eccentric musician who played his diddley bow with passion and precision. He really believed he was a major musician (read the liner notes to the cd...they're very detailed about the experience) and his playing proved him right.

It's one thing to play slide guitar using frets and position markers to guide your slide hand. It's another to play incredible tunes on a 2x4 with broom wire. Eddie "One String" Jones should be classified as a slide guitar legend because of his pitch and skill. His slide hand (he used a whisky bottle as a slide) hits each note perfectly.

I love this cd and have let many many friends borrow it. If you like slide guitar, blues, O Brother Where Art Thou music or anything labeled "outsider music," then you'll want to get this disc. You'll thank me later.

-Shane Speal
curator of the National Cigar Box Guitar Museum.

I first heard this on and LP (remember 33 1/3?) in the late sixties when I bought it just because it looked interesting. I am really pleased to see it available on cd. This is a must have if you are into collecting folk music at all. I was also pleased to see the original liner notes included with the cd, so you can see how this one string instrument is made. Eddie "one string" put his together from the junk pile, and it has a totally unique sound. Kinda makes one want to go the garage and put one together just to try it out. And Edward Hazelton Jones is a great harmonica player with a very haunting sound. Check this out! This is the real deal and you won't regret it.

this recording is a really interesting album,if you are lookin for this kind of sound, this is about as raw as it gets.I love the pure delta sound like son house and robert johnson and this for me was a real diamond in the rough! It's sad that most of these musicians were poor and treated bad even though there music was rich and full of emotion.