Appalachian Wood

The Mouth Bow:

Alex Stewart was the maker of these mouth bows. Alex was born and raised in Hancock County, Tennessee and is now about 67 years old. Alex Stewart was a farmer and also big into "coopering" woodwork. He made just about anything anyone asked for out of wood, one of these was the mouth bow. The mouth bow is one of the oldest musical instruments around, it is made with the same concept as a hunting bow but the ends are more tapered off rather than curved. The strings used on these bows were normally twine, leather, or gut. The mouth bow was a musical instrument said to be used back even to when the cave drawings were crafted. These particular mouth bows were unique to Appalachia in the sense that it was locally made by a great wood crafter of that time and even today. It really helps understand the Appalachian culture in the way it was made, that almost all of their stuff was crafted in wood and they were creative in making new types of instruments, it gives you the sense of what their entertainment was.

 In this photo, Alex Stewart is playing one of his hand made mouth bows.