It’s no secret that I’m fond of folk and country songs adapted to jazz and dance arrangements (see Casey Jones, Hand Me Down My Walkin’ Cane/She’ll Be Comin’ Around the Mountain, another Casey Jones), and this new arrival to my collection fits squarely in that mold. I’ve always found the material on many of these early issues of Melotone records interesting, and looking through the discography, a few records by “‘Happy’ Dixon’s Clod Hoppers” particularly intrigued me. Was it a country band or a dance band playing country music a la Paul Tremaine (as was apparently a passing fad around 1930). No transfers of any of their records seemed to be available, and little information on the group seemed to exist, so I’d been keeping an eye out for one of their for quite a while. This copy having fallen into my possession, I’m happy to finally be able to hear it, and now all of you can too.
Melotone M 12057 was recorded on October 27, 1930 in New York City by “Happy” Dixon’s Clod Hoppers, actually a pseudonym for Harry Reser’s Six Jumping Jacks with vocals by Tom Stacks, and most likely with Bill Wirges at the piano.
The first side is a fine fox trot rendition of the pseudo cowboy ballad “When the Bloom is On the Sage”, punctuated with Harry Reser’s famous banjo and an accordion near the end lends a Western touch.
When the Bloom is On the Sage, recorded October 27, 1930 by “Happy” Dixon’s Clod Hoppers.
The flip-side is a little hotter, with a fast paced novelty arrangement of Henry Whitter’s famous “The Wreck on the Southern Old 97”, made popular by Vernon Dalhart in 1924. In this version, specific reference is made to “Steve” Broady, the engineer of the Southern Railway 1102 pulling the Old 97 “Fast Mail” when it departed Monroe, Virginia on September 27, 1903, bound for Spencer, North Carolina. As the song tells, the Old 97 never made it to Spencer, derailing on a trestle near Danville, Virginia as a result of Engine 1102’s excessive speed. Unlike Steve Broady, Engine 1102 survived the accident, and was still in service when this side was recorded in 1930.
The Wreck On the Southern Old 97, recorded October 27, 1930 by “Happy” Dixon’s Clod Hoppers.
I was finally able to get a computer working to transfer my records, after the one I was using kicked the bucket, so I’m now able to post this iconic record of the 1940s. Consider it an encore to yesterday’s performance. However, I must ask one kind favor from all of you people, if you think this audio has a sort of high-pitched tone or crackle (other than the record’s own noise) in the background, or otherwise sounds inferior from my usual transfers, please tell me, so I can take action in bringing it back up to par should it be necessary.
Decca 8659 was recorded on March 15, 1944 and October 4, 1943, respectively. Recordings made in 1943 are fairly uncommon, as the American Federation of Musicians began a strike that resulted in a recording ban on July 31, 1942, and lasted through most of 1943. Decca had only settled with the union the month before this recording was made.
First up, it’s Louis Jordan’s take on Johnny Mercer’s World War II classic, “G. I. Jive”.
G. I. Jive, recorded March 14, 1944 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
Next is Jordan’s famous “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t (Ma’ Baby)”, another classic song of that era, and carried on to many in younger generations by way of the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon Solid Serenade.
Is You Is or Is You Ain’t (Ma’ Baby), recorded October 4, 1943 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
Well, I had planned to put up “G.I. Jive”, backed with “Is You is or is You Ain’t (My Baby)” for Louis Jordan’s birthday today, but tragically, my transferring computer met its untimely demise. Since I haven’t been able to repair it or procure a functioning replacement, here’s the only Louis Jordan record I already had transferred, it’s a good one, too.
Louis Thomas Jordan was born July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, his father was a music teacher and bandleader with the famous Rabbit Foot Minstrels. He learned to play clarinet as a child and played in his father’s band. Jordan majored in music at Arkansas Baptist College, and eventually made his way to New York, where he played with Clarence Williams in 1932. In 1936, Jordan began playing in Chick Webb’s orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom, sometimes performing as a vocalist. He was kicked out of the band in 1938 for attempting to poach members for his own band. That same year, he started the band that would become his famous Tympany Five, which first recorded for Decca as “Louie Jordon’s Elks Rendezvous Band”. During and after World War II, Jordan and his Tympany Five became a driving force in the development of the jump blues and rhythm and blues genres, as well as one of the top-selling “race” artists. Changing tastes in the 1950s brought about a decline in his popularity, though he continued to record and perform into the 1960s. Louis Jordan died from a heart attack in 1975.
Decca 23741 was recorded June 26, 1946 in New York City by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
The classic “Let the Good Times Roll” is credited on the label as being composed by Spo-de-ode and Fleecie Moore. Spo-de-ode was a pseudonym for the song’s co-writer, Sam Theard, who was also responsible for “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You” fifteen years earlier (though the authorship of that song was contested by Cow Cow Davenport). Fleecie Moore was Louis Jordan’s wife, who was credited in order to circumvent his contractual restrictions on publishing songs.
Let the Good Times Roll, recorded June 26, 1946 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
On the reverse, Louis sings another classic, “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens”. This song was popularized in the latter day by its inclusion in the video game L.A. Noire.
Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens, recorded June 26, 1946 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
Styling themselves as cowboys, the Five Harmaniacs were a novelty jug band that had a short-lived but apparently successful run on vaudeville in the middle part of the 1920s. During that run, they also made a series of recordings for a number of companies in 1926 and ’27. The group cut their first side, titled “Harmaniac Blues”, in Chicago for Paramount in June of ’26 as the Harmaniac Five. They followed with four sides for Victor, two for Brunswick, two for Edison, and one for Gennett, all of them recorded in New York. They also made radio appearances across the United States.
There is conflicting information surrounding the identities of the members of the Five Harmaniacs. Brian Rust lists Claude Shugart as the jug and washboard player, Jerry Adams on comb, Percy Stoner on kazoo and banjo, with Wade Hampton Durand, Walter Howard, and Ned Nestor filling out the rest of the band, each taking some part on banjo, guitar, harmonica, and ukulele. The 1978 LP release The Five Harmaniacs – 1926-27 (Puritan 3004) lists an entirely different personnel including Syd Newman on harmonica, kazoo, and washboard, Dave Robertson on harmonica and washboard, Roy King on banjo, ukulele, and jug, Jerry Adams on comb, Walter Howard on guitar, and Claude Shugart on ukulele. Claude Shugart is incorrectly identified in some sources as Clyde, and Wade Durand (incorrectly) as Wayne. The Mainspring Press asserts that “the usual members of this group were Jerry Adams, Hampton Durand, Walter Howard, Ned Nestor, Clyde Shugart, and Percy Stoner,” with that information apparently recorded in Brunswick ledgers from their session with that company.
C. Shugart is listed as the vocalist on the label of “Sadie Green Vamp of New Orleans”, confirming his presence in the Harmaniacs. He may have also played kazoo and possibly banjo. Rust’s identification of Shugart as playing jug is likely incorrect, as jug can be heard during his vocal on “Sadie Green”. It is also certain that Walter Howard was the vocalist on “What Makes My Baby Cry?”, and surviving evidence indicates that he played the guitar as well. With Jerry Adams listed on comb in both sources, he most likely did in fact fill that role, and may have doubled on banjo. It would not have been uncommon in this type of band for each member to have played more than one instrument, and they may have switched back and forth periodically. As all sources confirm Howard, Shugart, and Adams as members, there is little evidence to cast doubt on their presence, but the identities of the other members are unconfirmed, at least in my research.
Walter Howard was born in 1897 and hailed from Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. His brother Edgar, who played banjo, was also a musician of some merit. Wade Hampton Durand was born in Indiana in 1877, and was working in music as early as the turn of the century. In 1918, he worked as a musical director in Los Angeles, and by 1940, he was an arranger in New York, living in a hotel that played host to a host of other musicians. Durand died in 1964. While Durand is confirmed as the co-composer of “Coney Island Washboard” and “Sleepy Blues”, his instrumental role in the Harmaniacs, if any, is uncertain. It has also been posited that Jerry Adams real name was Harold Whitacre.
The two discs, four sides, featured in this post account for the Five Harmaniacs’ full recorded output for the Victor Talking Machine Company.
Victor 20293 was recorded September 17, 1926 in New York City. C. Shugart (be it Clyde or Claude) provides the vocals on pop hit “Sadie Green Vamp of New Orleans”.
Sadie Green Vamp of New Orleans, recorded September 17, 1926 by the Five Harmaniacs.
On the other side, they play the first ever recording of the now classic “Coney Island Washboard”, composed by Durand and Adams, with words by Shugart and Ned Nestor, as an instrumental.
Coney Island Washboard, recorded September 17, 1926 by the Five Harmaniacs.
The Harmaniacs returned to the Victor studio five months later and recorded Victor 20507 on February 5, 1927. Walter Howard recites the vocal on the rollicking “What Makes My Baby Cry?”.
What Makes My Baby Cry?, recorded February 8, 1927 by the Five Harmaniacs.
On the flip, they back it up with the little bit bluer sounding instrumental “It Takes a Good Woman (To Keep a Good Man at Home)”.
It Takes a Good Woman (To Keep a Good Man at Home), recorded February 8, 1927 by the Five Harmaniacs.
Updated on December 1, 2016, June 24, 2017, and April 29, 2018.
Thanks to the release of the free version of Brian Rust’s Jazz Records 1917-1934, I found myself rather preoccupied as of late, and neglected to post in honor of Gene Austin’s birthday, so I’ll have to offer this a little belatedly.
Gene Austin was born Lemuel Eugene Lucas in Gainesville, Texas on June 24, 1900. He grew up in Minden, Louisiana, and learned to play guitar and piano before leaving home at fifteen to join a vaudeville troupe in Houston, Texas. When he got on stage, his voice wooed the audience so that he was offered a job on the spot. In 1917, he joined the Army to fight in the War and wound up in New Orleans, playing piano in Storyville before shipping off. When he got back home, he planned to become a dentist, but ended up going back to vaudeville. Austin first began recording with country musician George Reneau, the “Blind Musician of the Smoky Mountains”, for Vocalion and Edison, singing and playing piano, and soon switched to Victor. With the advent of electrical recording, Gene Austin was among the first singers to exploit the more sensitive technique as a “crooner”. His 1927 recording of “My Blue Heaven” was one the best selling and most popular records of the decade. As the ominous clouds of the Great Depression rolled in, Austin was relegated to the budget labels, and as swing became prominent, his style soon began to sound dated. In the mid-1930s, he began appearing in minor roles in motion pictures. Austin continue to sing professionally for many years after falling from the spotlight, and in 1964, ran for governor of Nevada. Besides his singing, Gene Austin was also a songwriter, and originated such standards as “When My Sugar Walks Down the Street”, “How Come You Do Me Like You Do?”, and “The Lonesome Road”. Austin died January 24, 1972 at the age of seventy-one.
Hit of the Week L 3 was recorded in October of 1931 in New York, and released at the newsstands on November 19, 1931. It was Gene Austin’s only Hit of the Week release. These Hit of the Week records were pressed in coated paper and sold for fifteen cents at newsstands. We previously heard Duke Ellington’s band on one of these unusual flexible discs. As part of the latter half of Hit of the Week’s releases, this disc has narrower grooves to accommodate a five minute recording on one side.
On this single sided cardboard record, Gene Austin croons “Now That You’re Gone”. The second tune, “La Paloma” is an instrumental by the Hit of the Week Orchestra.
Now That You’re Gone, recorded October 1931 by Gene Austin and Hit of the Week Orchestra.
