Johnny St. Cyr

Johnny St. Cyr's calling card was a special homemade six-string guitar-banjo whose distinctive sound can be heard on Louis Armstrong's classic Hot Five and Hot Seven sides. St. Cyr also played guitar and banjo with Papa Celestin, Kid Ory, and King Oliver. At the start of the 1930s, St. Cyr had resumed his day job in New Orleans as a plasterer, but continued playing through the next two decades. In the mid-'50s, he made his only album as a leader, naming the group his Hot Five.