the of mirror eye

* Beans Hambone & El Morrow: Beans (2.5 mb)
* Grant Brothers & Their Music: Tell It To Me (2.5 mb)
* Kirk McGee & Blythe Poteet: C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken (2.5 mb)
* Jim Jackson: I Heard The Voice Of A Porkchop (2.5 mb)
From Good For What Ails You (Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926-1937) : Old Hat Records : Old Hat CD-1005

I was shopping the other day when I came across this curio sub-titled Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926-1937. The cover featured this strange looking duo with one fellow playing the banjo and with two dogs sitting faithfully to their sides. My interest was immediately piqued and I quickly plunked down the required ducats for the CD. And boy am I ever glad that I did. This has been on near constant rotation in my cd player for awhile now.

This collection of ye olde timey songs is a fantastic overview of what was going on “back in the day”. All the way back when hucksters could make their own patent medicine and sell them at travelling Medicine Shows. The purpose of the musicians was to draw and loosen up the crowd. And then when the crowds were sufficiently entertained, the “doctor” would make a grand entrance and start extolling the virtues of his medicine.

In the days before electronic mass media, the traveling medicine shows spread entertainment across America, and music was always a crucial ingredient. Onstage, musicians served up a variety of comic songs, parodies, popular favorites, novelties, folk songs, dance tunes, and instrumental specialties. Later, new musical forms, such as jazz and blues, were added to the bill. The shows died out by mid-20th century, but not before a handful of seasoned veterans left their musical legacy on phonograph records.
The primary motive of every medicine show was to peddle the assorted nostrums and tonics of the flamboyant quacks whose sales pitch was dictated by the credo: “Never use one word, when four will suffice.” The free program of music and comedy was designed to draw a crowd and weaken sales resistance before the “learned professor” made his dramatic appearance on the platform to lecture the populace on their numerous ailments, and to offer his unique remedy - for a price.

(from Old Hat Records website)

These songs absolutely blow my mind because even though they were played and recorded some 80 years ago, they’re still way more interesting than most of the aural crap being produced today. And somehow, the songs manage to be both incredibly strange and strangely familiar, all at the same time.

So, we’ve got Beans Hambone & El Morrow singing an ode complete with Biblical references to that musical fruit, the bean. Next we’ve got the Grant Brothers singing about the evils of cocaine. Followed by Kirk McGee & Blythe Poteet teaching us how to spell chicken. And last but not least, we’ve got Jim Jackson (perhaps foreshadowing the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?!?!) and his parody of I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say.

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Ok. The Thing (look here) with Joe McPhee are gods!! They have one of the most high energy show that I’ve ever seen. Paal Nilssen-Love is probably one of the tightest, most powerfullest drummers I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. Even if you don’t like the genre of free jazz, you should see them anyways. They’re that good.