Cigar Box Scott Bio

Cigar Box Scott's unique take on roots music fuses traditional folk music with rock and blues inspired rhythms. He creates original interpretations of old songs, performing new arrangements on electric cigar box guitar and his homemade amplified foot stompbox. His solo gigs cover a wide range of styles and songs.

As a cigar box guitarist, Scott goes beyond blues and rock and has delved heavily into old-time music and rural folk and Appalachian traditions, and on into bluegrass and country music. Like the songsters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, playing on homemade instruments, he blends genres to create arrangements tailored to contemporary audiences.

Not just a singer and player, Scott is an entertainer, getting audiences involved and as invested in these old songs as he is. 

“I love traditional music. Call it what you will: roots music, folk songs, bluegrass, blues, old-timey, traditional … doesn’t matter, I love it all. The melodies, the instruments, the stories behind them, how they’ve evolved over the years.

“And, I love to reinvent them. This is songwriting for me, adding my creative stamp to these songs.”

Scott has credentials to back up his singing and playing. He was the editor of Sing Out! Folk Music Magazine in the early 2000s and is the author of the traditional music songbook: The Essential Bluegrass & Old-Time Songbook.

Although a long-time musician, picking up a cbg only a year-and-half ago has changed Scott’s musical life. He taught himself how to play, created his own chording, and began rearranging his favorite traditional songs. With the cigar box guitar, he was finally able to play the old-time songs the way he’s always wanted. Based in Dayton, Ohio, he’s now gigging on his neo-folk cigar box guitar songs.

His alter ego, Scott Atkinson lives in Troy, Ohio and has been playing solo and in bands for over 25 years. In addition to his cigar box solo gig, Scott plays lap steel for Dayton-area indie folk band The Barnharts. He was a founding member of York, PA band HPR (High Point Ramblers) and played with Kelly Planer & the Perks in Allentown, PA.