The Sidecars

The New Orleans Jazz Vipers

2005-09-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

When Eric and Sarah took a trip to New Orleans and saw the Vipers, they became a big inspiration for the formation of the Hot Six out of elements of the Sidecars and Get Off Downtown.

Our best wishes and prayers go out to the people of New Orleans, and to all the musicians there who've inspired Americans at large and the world to push harder and make more music.

It's good to see the Vipers are still online; at least their servers are up. I've been meaning to add them to the sidebar. We'll keep checking back for news.

Upcoming Gigs

2005-09-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

Update (8/12): Bump!
Update (8/26): Bump! Bump!
Update (8/26): Bump! Bump! Bump!

Here's some dates to add to your calender as we look ahead toward the fall:

Saturday, Sept 3
12:30 - 2:30 PM
The Sidecars will be playing Western Swing as part of the Plaza Jazz Series at the Diggs Fountain Plaza on the corner of Clifton & Ludlow, in Clifton, near the heart of Cincinnati's famous Hospital District.

Pssst! Hey! Keep the evening of Sept. 10th open. Something might happen. I'll let you know....

Saturday, Sept 24
12:30 - 2:30 PM
This time it's the Hot Six's turn, playing hot jazz and featuring the cool voice of Sarah "Cadillac" Johnson. More of the Plaza Jazz Series, still at the corner of Clifton & Ludlow.

Tags: music, gigs, live music, swing, western swing.

Let me put on a fresh pot

2005-08-28T16:41:00.000-05:00

Today is Singing Cowboy Day at Keep the Coffee Coming, and I almost missed it. Kat has music from Gene Autry, Frankie Laine, Montana Slim, and Tex Ritter.

And don't miss the Boswell Sisters.

Seeing the Boswells so close to those singing cowboys reminds of that fantastic recording that Bing Crosby and the Boswell Sisters made of San Antonio Rose. You know the one -- the one with the ocarinas. WMKV used to play it every afternoon, it seemed.

Vincent Price and the Blue Glaze Mento Band

2005-08-27T12:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to pretend to be cooler than I am. I'd never heard of Mento before, and while I was looking for images of Vincent Price, the actor, I stumbled across this page dedicated to Vincent Price, master of Mento music, who passed away in 2004. This traditional Jamaican music sounds to my virgin ears a bit like a cross between Calypso and ~~Dixieland jazz~~Uncle Dave Macon.

There are four, full-length audio excerpts at the bottom of the page. They're in unprotected WMA format; if you have MediaPlayer 9 and iTunes 4, you can convert them to a portable format, such as .mp3 or AAC.

Courtesy of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission.

Gene Autry, Itinerant Bluesman (.mp3)

2005-08-25T08:06:00.000-05:00

Some stories never get told because they don't suit anybody's purposes. Those are my favorite stories. You've probably heard the story about how Gene Autry was discovered by Will Rogers:

Born in Tioga, Texas, on September 29, 1907, Orvon Gene Autry bought his first guitar at the age of 12 for $8. By the late 1920s, he was working as a telegrapher for the railroad in Oklahoma. While he was singing and playing in the office one night, Gene was discovered by the great cowboy humorist Will Rogers. Rogers advised the young Autry to try radio, and the rest is history. [Link]

And you may have heard that, unlike slick dudes such as Roy Rogers (aka Leonard Slye), Gene was a real Texas cowpoke. From a profile written in 1934:

Recently in Oklahoma a group of young men of the town arranged to have him attempt to ride an outlaw horse, evidently thinking he couldn't do it. He was able to prove his cowboy training, and successfully rode the horse.[Link]

What you won't hear about, most likely, is the kind of music Gene was playing when Will Rogers found him -- rough, hard-edged west-Texas Blues, with more than a suggestion of Jimmie Rogers.

Here's an early, pre-Hollywood recording of Gene, singing of love and betrayal, with murder on his mind (courtesy of The Internet Archive):

Atlanta Bound (.mp3)

Rauß!, Little Dogie, Schnell, schnell!

2005-08-21T10:30:00.000-05:00

"Der Alte Cowboy" is the German title of the Western standard "The Last Roundup." Here's a link to an .mp3 of the Comedian Harmonists' recording of Der Alte Cowboy, courtesy of WFMU's Beware of the Blog:

Called "Jewish-Marxist noise" by the Nazis in 1932, this German singing supergroup broke up two years later after it was prohibited from performing due to the non-Aryan heritage of half its members. This piece of fluff was recorded a month before the split. Download MP3

In 1997, the story of the Comedian Harmonists was told in an award-winning German-language film. I haven't seen the movie, but I've been digging the music for the last several weeks, and I like this track more and more each time I hear it. Give it a listen.

Tags: music, mp3.

Vintage Bourbon -- Bourbon Street, that is.

2005-08-21T00:14:00.000-05:00

Here's a terrific article at frenchquarter.com about the scene on Bourbon Street in New Orleans during the burlesque heyday of the '30s and '40s. Great pics. Via Plep.

BBQ Video

2005-08-12T19:35:00.000-05:00

If somebody put this movie together to try to make fun of Americans, all I can say is they failed miserably. As my buddy Joe used to say, by the time they got to the end, I had to put down my chicken just to wipe away a tear. (Link to Quicktime movie -- it's a big 'un.) Via Boing-Boing. (Confidential to Mark F. in NYC: It's called "Dueling Banjos." Sheeesh.)

Smokin' and Drinkin' on the Big Rock Candy Mountain

2005-08-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

Check out these MP3 posts at Big Rock Candy Mountain:

Gonna Get Tight: with MP3 downloads of drinking songs from solo Tommy Duncan, Moon Mullican, and the Sunshine Boys.

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette: The canonical version of the titular song by Tex Williams and His Western Caravan, and a pistolical version by that son-of-a-gun Johnny Bond; plus silky chanteuse Peggy Lee with the torch song "Don't Smoke in Bed" (as Charlene Darling said of Salty Dog, "That one always makes me cry.") Roger Miller and post-Dylan folk/virtuoso Nick Drake are also represented digitally.

Say Catfish, can't we get some of your vinyl digitized? That kinda bally really brings in the marks. I know I've never seen a rerelease of those Doughboys radio shows.

My best quality is my humility....

2005-08-11T16:54:00.000-05:00

This interview with Jake Speed on CincyMusic.com is worth reading, not only because he says nice things about the Sidecars, but because he's such a humble and generous person, with great insights into music and the musical life.

But mostly because he says nice things about the Sidecars:

....
13. Name the top five live performances you've seen that blew your mind.
The top five live performances that blew my mind in 2004 were:
....
2. The Sidecars at my wedding.
....
20. Name a few of your favorite Cincinnati Bands.

The Sidecars [First out of the gate!].....

Read the whole thing and find out who Jake likes almost as much as us.

Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm

2005-08-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

Catch this swingin' guitar!

I really like this vintage radio ad for Ballantine Beer posted at Basic Hip Digital Oddio.

Anyone care to guess who the guitarist is? I'm thinking Buddy Merrill, but only because the vocal group sounds like something out of the Welk band.

"HotSpots" is a new feature a Basic Hip: free download previews of lo-fi vintage ads as mp3s; serious fans, broadcasters, podcasters, etc., can download hi-fi .wavs for a sawbuck. In fact, don't use my direct link, check 'em all out.

UPDATE (8/16): Boing Boing just now blogged Hot Spots. I know that a) this is a new site, and b) it promotes a band, which makes it sorta-semi-commercial, but look--we're a week ahead of the curve here. This is a real value-added blog proposition. If you wander by, please consider throwing some traffic our way. (And to think, Mark, I just bought a ukulele because of you. Where is the love?)

Rabbit Hash Re-hash

2005-08-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

As always, Rabbit Hash was great fun. Big thanks to Famous Amos Hopkins for stepping in with the big John Deere bass and doing such a great job on short notice.

Keith Baker dropped by, and helped us out with the evocative sound of his musical saw, and even Sammy helped out his Mom with some impromptu backing vocals.

Speaking of Sam's mom, Sarah was able to get some snapshots and DV. Hopefully, we'll be posting some pics and videos to the blog as soon as we figure everything out. Thanks to Terry, the General Store, and the good people of Rabbit Hash for once again making us feel so welcome.

Merle Haggard sings Roly Poly

2005-08-08T18:54:00.000-05:00

Limited time, MP3 Download at The Tofu Hut. From the rare, pricy OOP collectible CD/LP from 1970, "A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World: Or, My Salute To Bob Wills." With a fine entry from Forksclovetofu, and lotsa links.

You'll have to scroll down for it. The Tofu Hut might have permalinks, but I can't find 'em.

Also on the Hut: June Carter.

Django Videos

2005-08-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

Just found this big page of Django and other gypsy-jazz videos. Requires Flash. Via Blogio Oddio.

Rabbit Hash Tomorrow!

2005-08-04T20:38:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder: The Sidecars will be appearing tomorrow, August 5th, at the Rabbit Hash Barn Dance, from 7:00 to 10:00 PM.

If it's already tomorrow when you're reading this, that means we're playing tonight! We're probably on our way right now, so what are you waiting for?

Click the link for Yahoo maps to get directions. (Don't try Google maps; Google doesn't seem to know where Rabbit Hash is just yet.)

Go on-- get in your car and go! Go-go-go-go!

(Oh, and don't forget to bring a covered dish. I recommend this recipe.)

UPDATE (8/5, 3:15 PM): Yahoo maps seems to be a bit clobbered right now. If you need directions to Rabbit Hash, try Mapquest.

The Unfortunate Rake

2005-08-03T23:14:00.000-05:00

Via MeFi, one of my favorite stories in traditional music--the so-called "Rake Cycle" is a group of traditional songs that evolved from a single popular 18th c. broadsheet ballad called "The Unfortunate Rake." The song evolved in various forms in England and Ireland, it was carried to the New World, both North America and the Carribean, and went through various permutations over the decades and centuries. At each stop along the way it picked up various local details, and changes in melody and rhythm, to emerge at the dawn of the recording age as not one but two distinctly different traditional American songs: The New Orleans jazz standard "St. James Infirmary Blues" and the cowboy folk song "The Cowboy's Lament" (better known as "The Streets of Laredo"). This article, not linked in the MeFi thread, is long but well worth reading.

I've long felt in my bones that jazz, blues, country, Western, and folk music are in some sense the same music. The unfortunate rake, in all his various guises, would seem to agree with me.

Faded Love

2005-08-03T08:49:00.000-05:00

Check out this trailer (embedded .wmv) for Faded Love, an independent documentary about Bob Wills filmed down in Turkey, TX during Bob Wills days. Faded Love was a 2003 winner of the SXSW Film Festival. If you squint and use your imagination, you just might see Chris "Idaho Slim" Larsen grinning in the background of the crowd scenes.

Don't like embedded video? Try this downloadable direct link, because I like you.

Howdy!!!

2005-07-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

Ahh-haaaa!!!!

The Sidecars in Rabbit Hash, August 5th

2005-07-16T15:19:00.000-05:00

Holy cow!

The Sidecars will be appearing Friday, August 5th, at the Rabbit Hash Barn Dance, from 7:00 to 10:00 PM.

What? You've never been to Rabbit Hash? Rabbit Hash is quite simply one of the most welcoming, heartwarming places on God's green earth. Some folks say it's the center of the universe.

This is going to be a real special evening, so gather up the young'uns and your dogs, and come two-step the night away on the banks of the Ohio in one of the few unspoiled spots left in America.

The Sidecars at Arnold's -- July 22

2005-07-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

The Sidecars will be appearing at Arnold's Bar and Grill, 210 East 8th Street, in downtown Cincinnati, on Friday, July 22.

Arnold's has a Cincinnati landmark since 1865, and the Sidecars have been part of it since 2000. If you've not yet enjoyed live music and great food and drinks in Arnold's courtyard, you're in for a treat.

The music starts around 9:00 PM.

Cadillac Who and Her What Now?

2005-07-16T14:53:00.000-05:00

Cadillac Johnson and the Cincinnati Hot Six. Here's a bit from the homepage:

The Cincinnati Hot Six plays traditional swing influenced by the small groups of the 1920's, 30's, and 40's. The repertoire consists of songs made famous by Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong.

Who are The Sidecars?

2005-07-16T14:46:00.000-05:00

Here's some information about The Sidecars from our homepage:

The Sidecars play western swing in the tradition of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and The Light Crust Doughboys. To see where we are coming from check out a little bit on the History of western swing. The Sidecars have been playing in and around Cincinnati, Ohio for about three years now at places like Arnold’s, The Comet, Northside Tavern, Kaldis and at events such as Jammin’ on Main, Rivertown Breakdown, Tall Stacks, Octoberfest in Covington, KY and the Old Timers Festival in Rabbit Hash Ky. The Sidecars have made live appearences on local radio stations such as WNKU and WAIF. In 2002 we realeased our first CD, the independently produced STAY ALL NIGHT which is available at SHAKE IT RECORDS and other local music stores as well as having received airplay on local radio shows. Make plans to come on out and listen to ever popular western swing with The Sidecars and come back and visit the website as we will be adding photos and more in the near future. Hope to see ya’ll soon.

Welcome!

2005-07-16T14:40:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the blog for The Sidecars and Cadillac Johnson and Her Hot Six.

Check here for the latest news and information about upcoming performances, pictures, stories, and sounds, and links from all over the world to fans of Western, Jazz, and great traditional American music.