Kentuckian Doc Roberts was one of the great fiddlers in early recorded country music. He recorded fairly extensively for two of the most revered prewar record labels: Gennett Records, based in nearby Richmond, Indiana, and Paramount Records, of Grafton, Wisconsin. This track, recorded in New York in 1934 during the depths of the depression, was for a battery of cut-price labels: Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, and Conqueror.

The tune bears significant similarity to ‘Deep Elem Blues’ and ‘Ginseng Blues’. The latter was first recorded in 1929, the former, to the best of my knowledge, received its first country recording in 1933 by the Lone Star Cowboys.

Coal Tipple Blues (MP3)

Asa Martin and James Roberts are credited with the guitar accompaniment.

Courtesy of Juneberry78s.com. Please consider purchasing one of their CD-R or DVD-R compilations of old-time 78s and radio shows.

After more than three years of procrastinating, I finally got around to visiting the barbershop again. I figured a nice trim would go well with this season of change, and I’ve always been of the philosophy that if you’re going to pay someone to cut your hair, you might as well get the most for your money. So it was with giddy anticipation that I scheduled an appointment at the Belmont Barbershop in Roscoe Village, the only place in Chicago where you can shoot pool and drink PBR while you wait. They run a fine establishment and everyone there is well schooled in the barberial arts, including hot towel shaves. Thanks to Andrew who did a wonderful job.

Not being one to be wasteful, I also decided I would donate my shorn hair to a good cause. My 14 inch locks are now on their way to Wigs For Kids, an organization that provides free hairpieces to children with medical conditions. There are a few other charities that provide similar services, and anyone interested can read about it in this article from the New York Times.

By pure coincidence, while I was waiting for a chair to open up I received a call from my sister who informed me she’d just given birth to my newest nephew, Gabriel DaeMyung Shen. I’ll be visiting him next week and hope that he likes my new ‘do.
For anyone curious to see what my face looks like without a mop of hair surrounding it, come check it out at our next show.

With my mane sheared, this once again leaves Scott as the only hirsute member of the band, and this marks the first time I’ve ever used that word in a sentence!

We’re in the home stretch for our as-yet-untitled 3rd CD. Here’s the probable track list:

• California
• Short Life of Trouble
• The Logjam
• Sandy River Belle
• Pain in My Heart
• Trishanku’s Heaven
• The Takeup Reel/ Cold Frosty Morning/ Grey Eagle
• Pick Poor Robin Clean
• Listen to the Mockingbird
• Little Sadie
• Dead Flowers
• Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar
• Join the British Army
• Mississippi Trashboat

Alexander Gelfand, who penned the introduction to our nearly-out-of-print first CD, is on board to write the liner notes.

Some entirely unuseful stats:

• Number of tracks: 14
• Running time: 42 minutes
• Number of vocal numbers: 10
• Number of instrumental numbers: 4
• Number of times the word number appeared in the previous two lines: 4
• Number of original compositions: 5
• Number of traditional or cover tunes: 9
• Number of songs featuring the accordion: 2
• Number of tunes featuring the erhu: 1
• Number of jaw harps or didgeridoos brought to the studio in hopes of sneaking them into a song when no one was paying attention: 2
• Number of songs featuring the jaw harp and/or didgeridoo: 0*
• Number of tunes in f# minor: 2 (Logjam and Trishanku)
• Number of tunes with bird references in the title: 3
• Number of tunes that have a thing that the band refers to as “the thing”: 2 (Dead Flowers and Short Life of Trouble)

* this injustice must be made right by overdubbing jaw harp and/ or didgeridoo solos on every tune, no matter how inappropriate.

We have some very nice-looking new buttons on the way, designed by our friend Bert Stabler. Click on the image for a much larger, bandwidth hogging image. We should have these in hand for our next batch of shows later this month.

Bert is a very talented guy who teaches art in the Chicago Public Schools. We went to the same goofy little high school in suburban Central Ohio, and now he lives a few blocks from me in Logan Square, further proof that Logan Square is the center of the universe.