Shane Speal

Calling Shane Speal a blues musician only describes 10% of his entire artistic output.  Speal singlehandedly spearheaded a worldwide movement of cigar box guitar makers and players, reintroducing a long lost instrument into modern music.  He writes his own music on instruments he crafted himself and performs live with his humorous Snake Oil Band, an electrified jug band with cigar box guitars, washtub basses and other homemade contraptions.

The core of Shane Speal’s work centers around American folk art, specializing in cigar box guitars, folk music and the historical preservation of these elements.  This combines poetry, performance, songwriting, folk art lutherie, historical research, feature writing, museum curation, video production and publications.

Shane Speal’s YouTube channel reaches 24,500 subscribers. He hopes to launch an online reality show, “Sound Searchers.”  (See promo clip in VIDEOS section.)

Career highlights:

• Created the Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival in conjunction with Jim Lewin
• Authored Making Poor Man’s Guitars (Fox Chapel, 2018) and The Partscaster Cookbook (C. B. Gitty Publishing, 2020)
• Introduced Poor Man’s Guide magazine in January 2020
• Central figure in award winning Songs Inside the Box documentary (2008, Univ. of Alabama) and featured performer in Strung Together documentary (2015 Jon Miller)
• Opened the Cigar Box Guitar Museum in New Alexandria PA
• Released ten albums featuring cigar box guitar music