The only recording artist who played the "diddley bow", has died of Aids.
Lonnie Pitchford was an important, if little known, blues musician. He had one CD available "All Round Man' on the Rooster label.
The following biography of Lonnie Pitchford is on the Rock and Roll Hall Fame pages…
Pitchford, who has played everything from juke-joints to Carnegie Hall, was a 1995 nominee for a W.C. Handy Award, the blues industry's equivalent of a Grammy.
The Lexington, Mississippi native grew up in the land of Delta blues. As the second youngest in a family of seven boys, Pitchford was surrounded by guitar players. But he grew up to be the only performer. He is known for his renditions of songs from Robert Johnson , "King of the Delta Blues Singers." Pitchford is the only recording artist who plays the diddley bow, a one-stringed guitar.
Before guitars were connected to amplifiers and high price tags, the blues was played using a wire that stretched from a wall. Known as the diddley bow, the instrument was an early form of the guitar. The diddley-bow player plucked the wire while using a bottle neck or aluminium tube to stroke it.
Not to be confused with 1986 Rock Hall inductee Bo Diddley, the diddley bow was a combination of common household items. Before the audience, Pitchford plied the wire bristle fastener off a broom and nailed it on a 2-by-4 board.
"As they say, necessity is the mother of invention," said Pitchford, the only recording artist who plays the diddley bow. "I guess that's true in this case. You don't have to have very many items to amuse yourself. When I was growing up you just used what was handy." The first diddley bows were nailed directly to the wall. "But in the 1980s I was invited to Washington D.C. to play one of these on stage at the Smithsonian," Pitchford said. "It took me a whole week to figure out how I was gonna fit a whole house onto a ...," the audience cuts him off laughing. "I finally came up with a solution -- just tear a board upside the house." After fastening the wire, Pitchford slid a snuff can under it, noting that the idea came from his grandmother who used to save her cans for him.
With everything in place, Pitchford took out his hotel key card to use as a pick -- "just to show you how sometimes you have to improvise on things like this." Then he fiddled around a little before playing "The Star Spangled Banner," much to the amusement of the audience. For his performance, Pitchford also sang while playing acoustic and electric guitar. Cleveland's elder blues statesman, Robert Junior Lockwood, is considered one of his tutors. Pitchford has played backup for Lockwood, the stepson of Robert Johnson, "King of the Delta Blues Singers."
