Customer Reviews

One-String Blues

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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.

Eddie "One String" Jones dialogue and songs accompanied by his home made "one-string" or zither monochord (as the liner notes describe it)are offerings that should be experienced by anyone interested in the history of American music. How refreshing to hear the old blues standards like ROLLING AND TUMBLING or BABY PLEASE DON'T GO played on "One String's" single stringed instrument. The street musician's explanations and autobiographical remarks are equally compelling. Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the recording is the story of the man himself, discovered in the skid row section of Los Angeles in 1960 and recorded in the window of an abandoned building and never re-located that he might hear the recordings of his music. All of the elements of a folk hero. Much gratitude to Frederick Usher who recognized the importance of documenting this man who; using a length of 2 x 4 , a couple nails, and a length of baling wire, will change many of your preconceptions about music.

It is so fortunate that this music was recorded. Both the one string slide and the harmonica are roots blues at it finest. It is real human feeling and storytelling with obviously no slickness added. If you like the blues of the streets and of the people, rather than the blues of the studios and the charts, this CD is for you. I'm lucky to have found it. Get it while it is available- it won't be around forever.
I am a slide guitarist and this is inspiring me to build a 1 or 2 string slide instrument out of household materials.

I bought the album "One String Blues" at Shane Speal's suggestion (see his review) almost two 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.