One String Willie

I make my music on the one-string diddley bow, beating out a rhythm on a single wire string, while changing its pitch with a flat glass bottle slide. I am working to explore the limits of this primal instrument by moving beyond traditional playing styles. 

The diddley bow is an instrument of African-American origin, rarely heard outside the rural south.  The instrument is traditionally made from a board with an nail driven into each end, a piece of steel broom wire stretched between the two nails and tensioned by slipping a small jar and a small scrap of wood under the string and pushed towards the nail at each end.  The string is struck in a rhythmic manner with a finger or a stick, and the pitch of the string is altered by using a slide made of glass or metal. A diddley bow is slide guitar stripped down to its most elemental level. 

Traditionally considered an impromptu "entry-level" instrument, it is normally played by adolescent boys, who then graduate to a "normal" guitar if they show promise on the diddley bow.  However, because it is considered a children's instrument, very few musicians continued to play the diddley bow once they reached adulthood.  After hearing a recording of the diddley bow (One String Blues, Eddie "One String" Jones) in 2006, I immediately set out to master this primitive, beginner’s instrument.  The project soon became much deeper--to bring almost five decades of guitar experience to bear in forging new and advanced playing techniques and repertoire for a single string.

For traditionally grounded repertoire that provided technical development challenges, I drew on my earliest musical interests in rock (and roll), jug bands, string bands, ragtime, hokum, blues, bottleneck slide guitar, harmonica blues and American religious music from the 19th and early 20th centuries.  I also started writing my own material to make use of the novel technical advancements I have developed for this instrument. 

I made my first public appearance as One String Willie at the 3rd Annual Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza in Huntsville Alabama in 2007, and have since performed at numerous concerts at large and small venues, including twice at the Washington Folk Festival.  

I continue to explore and integrate novel playing techniques for the diddley bow, including for cigar box diddley bow.  I have conducted numerous diddley bow building workshops, and where time permits, will build a diddley bow on stage and then play it as part of my set.  I will demonstrate this in the parking lot or in a smaller, less public venue if desired.  My website, www.onestringwillie.com, is the go-to place on the internet to learn how to build traditional diddley bows.  I have published two diddley bow construction articles in Uncle Enos, an underground 'zine dedicated to the primitive rock/DIY music movement, two articles on building a diddley bow and on home-brew winding of electromagnetic pickups on sewing machine bobbins in MAKE magazine, and have been interviewed for the film Songs Inside the Box and for several books.  I have also self-released two CDs, A Store-Bought Guitar Just Won’t Do and You Gotta Hit the String Right (to Make the Music Swing).