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For most of my life, they had been around one another, but they had never actually met. When two of the great loves of my life finally got together, it was like they had been meant for one another all along, but I had never realized it. They made such an amazing pair! It was almost like when chocolate got together with peanut butter. We all lived happily ever after and Reese’s made a mint. It was even better than when peanut butter met grape jelly! Some things are simply meant to be, but some things are meant to be with something else. As the slogan said, “Things go better with Coke.” Many times, one without the other is simply not quite as good. For instance, what is macaroni without cheese, bacon without eggs (of course, unless you have a slice of tomato and two pieces of white bread to go with your bacon), one sock or one shoe without the other, a pen without paper, biscuits without gravy…I could go on, but surely, you get the point.

My parents gave me my first six-string when I was about ten. It was not much of a guitar, but then I was not much of a guitar player either. Regardless of those technicalities, it was love at first sight. Over the past three scores, without the ten, I have spent more time with guitars than I have with many people. Honestly, I may have enjoyed the time with guitars more than with some people, but I’m not naming names! I played my guitar so much as a teenager that Mama used to ask me if that thing was attached to my fingers!

It was about at the same time when I began playing guitar that I began getting into Dad’s doghouse for getting into his building materials. The problem was that I didn’t have any money to pay for those materials. I have loved building things and doing woodwork since those days long ago.

Some of the first things I ever built were birdhouses. Habitat for Humanity builds houses for homeless or needy families. I built shelters for sparrows or bungalows for bluebirds! The happy birds used to sing to me, and I used to sit outside and play and sing for them. I’ve been building things out of wood ever since.

It was not until earlier this year, that my building hobby and my guitar-playing hobby came together. Back in June, I went to a workshop in the mountains of North Georgia and built my first cigar-box guitar. That’s when my woodwork and my guitar talents met and it was love at first sight. I’m not sure they loved one another as much as I love building them. Since that time, I have been somewhat obsessed and have built several cigar-box guitars. I’ve also built guitars, dulcimers, and canjos out of cookie tins and all kinds of cans. I don’t smoke the cigars, but I do drink the coffee, or eat the food, that comes in the cans, and then make instruments out of the empty containers! I do have one small problem. Lately, I’ve been selling my homemade instruments faster than I can make new ones. If you come see one of my Bro. Billy Bob programs, I’ll play some of them for you! They’re not just for the birds!

Sometimes, two things, or two people, are best when they come together. Wise King Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes, “Two are better than one.” That is especially true when they have come together and complement one another!