I am not sure about you, but when I hear the term ‘one-man band’, I think of something like this:
or this:
Interesting – yes. Requiring a great deal of talent – yep! Fun – yebo! But cool – not so much. But then along came Shakey Graves with his kickdrum fashioned out of a suitcase, drum heads and bass drum pedals. Wow – what talent! I have been showing him to everyone who will listen to me and they are all converted after listening for a minute or two. Shakey you are a real star!
Now tell me this isn’t cool:
It may be because he is young and good looking but he is also very very good. Shakey Graves is the stage name of 25-year old Alejandro Rose-Garcia from Austin, Texas.
Arden Ward writes of Graves: The true beauty in Shakey Graves as a performer is his ability to captivate an audience with subtleties. Armed only with a guitar, a soulful voice, and a kick drum fashioned from an old suitcase, his performance is not that of the passive singer-songwriter. From the moment the first drum beat sounds, you’re consumed by the experiential nature of his music.

I have the exact picture of the first one man band in your article – do you know anything about the artist
Sadly I don’t, and a reverse image search didn’t show anything when I looked, but if you ever find out please let me know so I can credit the artist.