One String Sam

about 20 years ago and recorded two sides. He played a fretless, one-string,

home-made, monochord instrument. He was seen playing the streets for a

few years, then he disappeared."

Sheldon Annis, 1973

The legendary One-String Sam had languished in utter obscurity since

his mid-'50s recording of "l Need $100" was released to an unsuspecting

world by Detroit's miniscule JVB label. Located in an Inkster housing pro-

ject in 1973, Sam was added to the Motor City Blues Revue and turned his 15

minutes onstage into a rousing, crowd-pleasing tour-de-force, fretting his one

string guitar with a baby-food jar that - stuck up next to the microphone -

doubled as an echo chamber for his wailing vocal plaints.

The surprise hit of the festival, One-String Sam remained on-site until

the end, entertaining his new fans with a series of impromptu performances

backstage and on the festival field itself.

...but the biggest kick of all was the tumultuous reception afforded the

amazing One String Sam, alone on stage with his primitive board-plank-and-

bailing-wire instrument, his other-worldly voice and captivating demeanor. He

used a baby-food jar to bridge his one string, and another, slightly larger jar

as a combination slide and echo chamber, raising it from fretting the string to

sticking it at the side of his mouth next to the microphone for extra-special

vocal effects.

As it happened, One String Sam enjoyed the greatest applause of any artist at

the festival and turned out to be the star of the entire weekend, hanging around

the grounds and entertaining small hordes of young music-lovers here and there with

his startling art and effervescent personality. An immediate hit with thousands of

people who'd never even heard his name before, One String Sam responded as if he'd

been pleasing audiences of this size all his life and just went on and had himself

a natural ball.