By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — The Maine Blues Festival in Naples will have all the same qualities that draw crowds to it every year: plenty of talented artists playing toe-tapping, hip-swaying, head-turning music.

Plus, for locals, there is a sense of state pride to boot because every musician who performs in the festival hails from Maine.

This will be the 14th consecutive year of the Bluesfest. Just when people thought that nothing new could be added to the mix, the organizers came up with something else to pique people’s interest.

“We have one thing that is new. We are going to have a festival within a festival,” according to co-founder Kevin Kimball.

“We are going to have the first-ever Cigar Box Guitar Festival. So far as we know, it is the only cigar box guitar festival in New England. We’ve looked and we couldn’t find any others,” Kimball said.

The Cigar Box Guitar (CBG) festival will be held at the Naples Village Green from noon to 5 p.m. There are four CBG players lined up to take the stage. Then, for the last hour, there will be an open jam.

Like the blues, the cigar box guitar has its roots intertwined in the history of slavery in America. Both the blues and the creation of the cigar box guitar are solely American.

“So far as I know, it goes back to slave days and the impoverished South. Either you were prohibited from having an instrument or you couldn’t afford it,” Kimball said.

He explained that the wooden cigar boxes were used as the body for the handmade string instruments. 

“Now-a-days, it has become quite a craze. People are making them from kits. No two are alike. There are one-string, two-string, six-string cigar box guitars,” Kimball said.

Martin Tauber has been collecting and making CBGs for years. He shared the history of the instrument that has gained popularity worldwide. 

“The cigar box guitar is a typically American instrument. It was developed by the slaves because they came here with nothing, sometimes not even the shirt on their backs. And, their whole culture revolved around music,” Tauber said.

“Most of the blues riffs come from field chants. The riffs are still used in blues music today,” he said.

The CBG came into being in the mid-1800s, he said.

“When cigars were shipped in smaller boxes instead of crates around 1860 to 1865, the landowners threw out the wooden boxes. The slaves noticed the wooden box had a nice sound to it. And, the cigar box guitar was born,” Tauber said.

“They were able to tap out music on them. The one string is still popular” but as time went on more strings were added.

“I have seen pictures of soldiers in the trenches with cigar box guitars, in World War I, World War II and the Spanish-American War,” Tauber said. “When you don’t have money, and you want to take your mind off the problems you are having” a cigar box guitar comes in handy.

People are very intrigued when they see the instruments for the first time, he said.

“A lot of people, 90 percent of them have said, ‘I have never heard of them. Is this something new?’ I say, ‘No, it has been around for more than 100 years,’ ” Tauber said.

There will be another slight change at the 2019 Bluesfest. The stage by the Causeway Marina will be moved to more level ground instead of closer to Route 302, where it has been, according to Kimball.

“Even though Merced’s [on Brandy Pond] is gone, we are still going to have a big stage there. It is sponsored by Causeway Marina, the American Legion Post 155, the LA Music Factory and Freedom Café.”

“They are going to have a beer tent and a food truck. That is where Freedom Café comes in. They got the offsite permit,” he said. “The stage is largely the same. It will be moved off to the side. It will be down on the level part of the parking lot.”

“Another change is at Brother Flecker’s. Even when it was Sandy’s Flight Deck, it was traditionally acoustic. This year, they wanted to do electric. So, they are putting a stage on their parking area. We will literally have a band right next to the sidewalk,” he said.

Kimball provided some reasons to attend the festival.

“It is a nice alternative to the traditional Father’s Day gifts. Dad doesn’t need another tie; take dad to the Bluesfest,” he said.

“It’s family-friendly all day and grown-up friendly all night. It is just a lot of fun,” he said.For more information about this year’s Maine Bluesfest, go to www.mainebluesfestival.com