My first night with Cowboy Mouth

In 2003, Cowboy Mouth was playing a show in Jackson Mississippi. I had made "Angel" for John Thomas Griffith a few years before so I drove to Jackson to say hello.




When I got there, the guitar tech at that time said to me “Hey Dwight, you want a gig?”
He said they wanted to find someone for a few months. He said it would be easy..
I said sure, their people called my people and next thing I know I am driving to New Orleans to hop on a bus with a bunch of cartoon characters I didn’t know, except for Griff.






The other crew guys showed up first, of course. Others show up later and everyone is being nice but then Fred walks up shaking his head and said “You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into..” turned and got on the bus.
Feeling a little puzzled, I got on the bus and we started moving.
Everyone had gone to bed so I was sitting in the front lounge of the bus talking to someone on the phone. "Finding Nemo" was on the tv. (and by the way, it stayed on the tv for a month).

“Yeah, everyone seems to be nice. So far so good.” As I said that, the driver starts hitting the brakes really hard. Keep in mind, this is my first long trip on a tour bus.
Stuff starts sliding of the counter, drawers come open as we come to a very abrupt stop. I am still on the phone and said “ I haven't made a long trip on a tour bus before but I’m pretty sure this isn’t right.”

Will, the merch guy comes running past me and yanks the curtains open and we see giant flames burning and smoke all around us. Will turned around and screamed “We’re on fire!! Get your shoes!!”
As the bus starts backing up, I say into the phone “hey, can I call you back?” and put my shoes on.
James, the driver at the time had stopped right before we hit a 18 wheeler that had flipped over on its side and burst into flames. It had completely blocked a bridge, tires and fuel were exploding, it was a huge mess. James was also a sheriff deputy when we wasn’t driving the bus so he runs into the flaming pile of metal and rubber to check on the driver of that truck.

A few minutes later, James walks back with the other driver. The driver of the truck got thrown out when the truck flipped over but he was unharmed.

At this time I am standing in front of the bus with Paul Sanchez and we are just watching this truck burn.
As we are standing there I looked over at Paul and said with a straight face “ So Paul, Do all of the Cowboy Mouth tours start off like this?”

He didn’t crack a smile or even look away from the burning truck. He just said
“yeah, pretty much..”






- for more information please visit MDXGuitars.com

Well I'll be a Ham Sandwich! (The story of R.L. Burnside's MDX Guitar)

In 1994, Dr. Joe Stevens approached me about organizing a music festival with the Howlin' Wolf Blues Society in my home town of West Point, Mississippi. He told me then that he highly recommended that I meet and create a custom guitar for the great blues legend R.L. Burnside, who would be headlining the event.

After months of planning, the day finally arrived for the event to take place. When I first met R.L. Burnside, I remember being backstage and seeing him there, sitting in a small fold-up metal chair with a big kind smile. He looked at me, only 24 years old at the time, and probably thought of me as some novice guitar-maker kid, although I had already gained seven years under my belt as an experienced and well sought after luthier.

I sat down with a list of questions in my mind to get an idea of what he would want out of a custom guitar, made especially for him. I asked him the normal questions that I always ask everyone when preparing the sketch in my head for what their guitar would look like at the end of all of the work. What shape of guitar do you prefer? His answer, "Something small." What kind of pickups? "Humbuckers." What is your favorite kind of finish? "Sunburst." These questions probably went on for about 15 minutes then the last question was "How many frets would you like 21, 22 or 24?" I am guessing he felt he had humored me long enough and with a chuckle he said "23."

The 23rd fret on this guitar was made as an example of the R.L. Burnside humor that I had come to learn from my short time spent with him.

A year went by and it was already time for the second annual Howlin' Wolf Blues Festival in West Point and I knew R.L. would be there to perform another show again. I went up to him backstage with a guitar case in hand. He may have even been sitting in that exact same fold-up metal chair. We made eye contact as I was walking toward him and with that big friendly smile he said "Whatcha got there?" I opened the case and handed this guitar to him. He looked a little shocked as he sat there looking at it in his hands and started playing it for the first time. He shook his head and said "Man, that's nice, real nice.."

R.L. showed the guitar to Lil Howlin' Wolf who was standing there at the time and he said "Well I'll be a ham sandwich!" We all chatted for a few minutes while R.L. picked on his new guitar then I had to go set up my MDX Custom Guitar display for the festival. The night went on and so did life.



In 2006, I was on tour with the band Cowboy Mouth as their guitar tech. I was standing outside of the House of Blues in New Orleans with our tour manager Bryan Barry who had also happened to be R.L's tour manager for years previously. He pointed to a large window display outside of the venue that houses a mural of sorts. A kind of a collage of folk art and blues images with photos of some of the modern greats of the genre. A photo of R.L. sits among them: "Hey Dwight, did you ever notice in that picture, that guitar R.L. is playing is one of yours?" I had been to this venue multiple times but had never looked up at the display. In a bit of a daze I flashed back to that night in West Point and said: "Well I'll be a ham sandwich." I asked him if he knew where the guitar was now. He said it had been taken from R.L.'s home and nobody had any idea to where it could be now.

Again, life moves forward and in 2011 I got an email from Keith Mallete at Hillgrass Bluebilly Records telling me he had found this very guitar on Ebay and purchased the guitar.

All of R.L.'s other guitars had been lost in a house fire some years ago and Keith felt it was necessary to preserve this one.

Now it sits proudly in The Delta Blues Museum.

"Well I'll be a ham sandwich…"






- For more info please visit:
MDXGuitars.com