Mouthbow

MOUTHBOW

The musical bow is a simple string musical instrument part of a number of South African cultures, also found in other places in the world through the result of slave trade. In the United States a musical bow is primarily found in the Appalachian Mountains, where it is called a mouthbow or mouth bow. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1.5 to 10 feet (0.5 to 3 m) long, and strung end to end with a taut cord, usually metal. It can be played with the hands or a wooden stick or branch. Often, it is a normal archery bow used for music. (More from Wikipedia)

Buffy Sainte-Marie’s first album, It’s My Way! (1964) shows Buffy pictured on the front cover with a mouthbow (also known as a musical bow), a musical instrument that she uses on several songs on her first few albums. Mouthbows appear in cave paintings that have been dated to 15,000 B.C., and this use might even precede the use of bows as weapons.

(August 2013)