This video has amassed more than 10 Million hits.  You've probably seen it.  Now hear Shane Speal's interesting backstory to the entire project.

Shane Speal says:

In early 2012, I received a panicked call from a advertising company in England.  They were looking for cigar box guitars and they needed them NOW! 

The caller wouldn't devulge too much information, but said that a popular Youtube band was working on a song and video that would be connected to a Canadian telecom business.  It was a Tuesday afternoon.  They needed the guitars shipped to Quebec, Canada by the end of the week.

At the time, I only had one cigar box guitar built that was for sale.  I also offered up a beautiful cigar box ukulele made by a retired builder in North Carolina.  (I didn't want to give it up, so I offered a high price.  They didn't even blink and bought it immediately.) 

I also told them to contact my friend, Lenny Robert from Daddy Mojo Guitars in Montreal, since he was nearby.  They did and Lenny collected a bunch of his own cigar box guitars and hand-delivered them. 

Walk Off the Earth received their new batch of cigar box guitars on a Thursday, arranged the folk song "Little Boxes" on them, recorded it Friday and shot the video above on Saturday. 

That's how talented they are.

THE MAKING OF LITTLE BOXES:  Once they received my guitars in the mail, the ad agency called me up and offered to fly me to Quebec for the shoot.  At the time, I was a stay-at-home-dad and couldn't leave Melissa and the kids.  I had to turn them down.

Luckily, Lenny Robert was available and the cameras rolled:

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Email me when people reply –