Monday, October 17, 2005

Inventions in Sound


My friend Richard Bowden, an accomplished songwriter/guitarist has a long history in musical innovation. Besides several devices for the guitar to emulate slide and string bending, Richard devised a hilarious device involving whoopee cushions and a bellows. The article below describe it all.
"This was on Hee Haw around '84 and we are demonstrating to Roy Acuff how to play the instrument Rchard invented called the "Flatutina" or"Breeze Box, which is basically two fake Concertina ends with a bellows valve, with eight hollow whoopee cushions glued together in the middle, made rigid on the edges with rings inside them made from coat hangers.As you pulled it apart, they all inflated, and of course, you can imagine the sound it made as you pushed the ends back together.Both Roy and Ralph Emery (another TV show) learned how to play it extremely quickly. Talent runs rampant in that Nashville scene. Notice Bowden's and Acuff's outfits. Great minds think alike, I guess."