The award winning 2008 Max Shores documentary, Songs Inside the Box is now free to view below!
The concert and interviews were all filmed on site at the 2007 Alabama Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Huntsville AL. Shane Speal is the central figure, but the film also captures the late Gerry Thompson along with One String Willie, Bill Jehle, Timothy Renner, Leaving Miss Blue and Microwave Dave. We've posted it below. Enjoy!
source: www.poormansguitar.com
Replies
This definitely put a smile on my face :-)
After working like a madman all summer long, it's nice to chill out on a rainy sunday and watch this.
Thanks!
This is a great movie about the CBG community. Strung Together is another fantastic documentary, but Songs Inside the Box is special for me. This one one of the first videos I bought when I started learning about CBGs. What's more, I had my copy signed by Shane Speal at the National Cigar Box Guitar Museum. How crazy is that?
Long live the king! Wow! What a ride. I'm going to post this to every newbie member. This video answers so many questions that beginners fear to ask. Thanks Shane.
I was there! 2007 ! I even got some screen time on Max's flick. But my real interview got scrapped and left on the cutting room floor..,( me and my one string electric diddley cane assembly and jam. We even reshot stuff so editors could fake continuity). That's OK, I did get camera time, my butt looked great!! Right????, Folks still got to goof on my t-shirt on screen...! Max and I (and others) went back and forth about how to present this awesome show to folks, I didn't like his first pick for narrator, but then he found a great choice. I have a creative director credit for the film, how cool is that???? !!!!
I set one fixed camera to live broadcast the entire show, kinda like the fixed pole vid of the Allmans at Filmore East - just a fixed video on a pole (kinda). but it was cool!!, from noon till way after midnight and Ben Prestage to play us out.
I had another camera (MacBook Pro) to film interviews and just cool shit going on between sets. I tried to get the bands between sets - dang, an interviewer is a harder job than I thought... (not really.) My real camera only held 20 minutes of film, so I had to scrambl for 13 hours and clearing SD cards ALL DAY, I set a timer on my phone. I managed to keep it all together for a complete live show and 30 or so videos after I got home to , well you know...! It was a real real cool show, maybe the first REAL CBG SHOW to show folks what we can do...
I pretty much worked hard for 13 hours to document the fest. (sadly, I posted all the vids to MySpace, so that tells you I lost most everything. but the vids I still have speak for themselves. It was cool to interview the artists while the next artists set up on stage. I did get to taste a beer or 2...
But I love all y'all
Hard to believe it’s been that long, Max sure did do us justice!!
I love this film. It gets me excited. Thanks Shane, thanks all involved. Great art in this expressive revolution. I believe it is a new art form arising on the shoulders of share croppers, the homeless, Oakes, hippies and the likes. Freedom in a box.