The Todalo Shakers are happy to announce a brand new CD, scheduled for release on June 1, 2011! Called "Tickled, Too", it features fourteen fun songs from sources like the Mississippi Sheiks, Peg Leg Howell, Three Stripped Gears, and many other great players and singers of party music from the 1920s and 30s. Info about ordering will be up here soon, meanwhile here are liner notes -- a work in progress, so please check back for updates!
1. Don't Be No Fool/Salt Lake City Blues (WB, vocal) – Don't Be No Fool comes from an obscure 1929 recording by Al Miller, a clever songster and mandolinist living in Chicago about whom almost nothing is known. Salt Lake City Blues was written in the 1980s by our pal Cathie Whitesides after returning from a visit with her parents. Suzy plays it as originally written; Cathie later straightened out the third section. 2. My Baby's Got Something (Suzy, vocal) – From Bo Carter, who recorded more than 100 sides between 1928 and 1940 under that name, accompanying himself on guitar. His birth name was Bo (Armenter) Chatmon, a member of the Chatmon family who were (with Walter Vincson) the Mississippi Sheiks. Bo Carter Trivia: Suzy’s copy of Godrich & Dixon lists an unissued Bo Carter song recorded in 1940 called – Total Ole Shaker. I guess that’s the title of our next CD. 3. Podunk Toddle (instrumental) From a wonderful Mississippi string band, the Freeny Harmonizers. It goes through so many different keys!! This one is dedicated to the members of Thompson String Ticklers to commemorate their performance at the 2006 Portland Old Time Gathering. 4. Mama Don't Give All The Lard Away (Frannie, vocal) comes from the Dixieland Jug Blowers, one of the many bands organized by fiddler Clifford Hayes who was a big mover and shaker in Louisville, Kentucky during the early years of the jug band craze. 5. Georgia Crawl – (Eric, vocal) From Henry Williams and one of the greatest of all blues fiddlers, Eddie Anthony. It may be a cover of a song recorded 2 years earlier by Louis Armstrong called “Georgia Grind.” 6. 1931 Depression Blues (instrumental) From Three Stripped Gears (which has to be one of the best band names ever!) Why is this spritely tune named after the 1931 Depression? 7. Baby How Can It Be (Suzy, vocal) – issued under Bo Carter’s name, this was actually the Mississippi Sheiks: Bo Carter and Walter Jacobs (Vincson) on guitars and Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle. 8. My Walking Stick (WB, vocal) - Written by Irving Berlin, it was sung by Ethel Merman in the 1938 movie Alexander's Ragtime Band, and later recorded by Leon Redbone. 9. It Is So Good (Suzy, vocal) – from Charlie McCoy. He also did a version called “It Ain’t No Good” but we prefer the more positive point of view. 10. East Texas Drag (instrumental) From one of our all-time-favorite string bands, the East Texas Serenaders 11. Memphis Blues (Frannie, vocal) – WC Handy published this song in 1912 and it became one of his biggest hits,. We combined elements of several different versions to make our own. 12. Banks of the Kaney (instrumental) – This sweet, somewhat raggy tune comes from Big Chief Henry’s Indian String Band: Henry Hall on fiddle with his sons Clarence and Harold on guitar and banjo. Legend has it that they were full-blooded Choctaw Indians who had a gig playing string band music at a country fair in Oklahoma, and were discovered there by H.C. Speir who got them a recording contract with RCA Victor. This is the same H.C. Speir who was responsible for Charlie Patton getting a recording deal. They recorded six sides, in Dallas in 1929, none of which is the least like this one. Many thanks to our old pal Ron Cole for turning us on to this cool tune! 13. Sweet Lovin Old Soul (Suzy, vocal) – Sara Martin, from Louisville, Kentucky, was one of the first female blues singer to be recorded; her earliest session was in 1922. She had already made over 50 sides when Okeh decided to team her up with a jug band. This was in 1924, when jug bands were immensely popular in Louisville, and Clifford Hayes seemed to belong to all of them! He put together a jug band to accompany Sara Martin and the rest is history! 14. I'm Satisfied (WB, vocal) – one of Mississippi John Hurt’s signature pieces, and among the first country blues songs WB learned as a teenager. Give my todalo to who I please.
The Todalo Shakers includes Eric Thompson on mandolin and guitar, W.B. Reid on banjo-guitar and fiddle, Suzy Thompson on fiddle and guitar, Frannie Leopold on guitar, and Matt Weiner on bowed bass. Four of the Todalo Shakers sing, creating a rich palette of vocal blends. The album was recorded in WB Reid's living room, making for a great feeling of camaraderie; the exuberance and fondness that the musicians feel for their material and for each other is unmistakable. Eric and Suzy Thompson have long been known for their bluesy string band music. Now they've formed the Todalo Shakers with 3 other longtime musical compatriots and have recorded an album of vintage jug band blues and old time rags & stomps which sound like they are lifted right out of 1928 in Memphis, Tennessee or Dallas, Texas. The other Todalo Shakers include Mendocino's Frannie Leopold, who plays guitar, has toured and recorded with New Mexico's Jeanie McLerie as the Delta Sisters, and with Hank Bradley and Cathie Whitesides as the Balkan Kafe Orchestra. Bruce "W.B." Reid, who makes his home in Seattle, Washington, spent some of his formative years during his early twenties hanging out in San Diego with bluesman Sam Chatmon, of the legendary string band the Mississippi Sheiks. Bruce has toured and recorded with the Tallboys (Seattle's hottest oldtime string band), with oldtime fiddler Lee Stripling, with the Carolina Jug Stompers and with his wife, Bonnie Zahnow. The most recent addition to the band is Seattle bassist Matt Weiner who boasts a long resume including stints with the Asylum Street Spankers and Hot Club of Cowtown. |
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