Golden Mystics of Old Time Music

For the Love of 78 rpm Records
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Great Old Time Musical Performers

Bob Bovee–“Fine American Traditions”
 
Since 1971, Bovee has been traveling the entertainment trail, performing throughout the country and releasing albums of real cowboy songs.  His music is dusted with blues and ragtime, square dance tunes, sentimental songs, novelty numbers, yodels, and tin pan alley favorites.  His familiarity with cowboy songs comes naturally, having learned many of them from his grandmother and other family members while growing up in Nebraska.  Others have been gleaned from the 78 rpm records in his collection.
 
http://www.boveeheil.com
Dom Flemons–“The American Songster”
 
Flemons has made a career as a multi-instrumentalist and singer since  2005, resurrecting lost Blues and other traditional music, first as one of the founders of the “Carolina Chocolate Drops” and, more recently, as a solo performer. He infuses his CDs and live shows with his scholarship on Old Time Music. His “Black Cowboys” CD won numerous awards, and provides a much-needed perspective on the role and music of Black cowboys in the Old West.
 

East River String Band 

 

Founded in 2006 by 78 collector John Heneghan and Eden Brower, the band specializes in blues, hokum, pop, and country music from the early 20th century. If you long for the glory days of R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders, you have found the right band.  In fact, Robert Crumb—along with other famous purveyors of old time music—plays live with the East River String Band and on its CDs and LPs.  The full name of the band which is based in New York City is Eden’s and John’s East River String Band.

 

http://eastriverstringband.com

Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys

 

It’s hard to believe, but singer Janet Klein has been recording with her ukulele and touring with her band, The Parlor Boys, for over twenty years. Her repertoire mines popular and Vaudeville songs of the first three decades of the twentieth century, often treating us to lost or obscure gems. She has now put out ten CDs, her latest being a collection of songs from the Yiddish Vaudeville theaters.  Her band, The Parlor Boys, over the years has included  some of the best musicians specializing in vintage music, including Robert Armstrong, co-founder of the Cheap Suit Serenaders, the late English musician and music historian, Ian Whitcomb, and the wonderful pianist–and 78 record collector–Brad Kay.  Janet has an eclectic website devoted to old time music.

 

https://www.janetklein.com/web/main.html

 

http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-janet-klein-of-by-day-janet-klein-print-project-coordinator-by-night-entertainer-and-bandleader-of-janet-klein-her-parlor-boys/

Adam Swanson:  A modern “Professor” of Ragtime
 
One of today’s great performers of Ragtime and early Jazz, pianist Swanson is also a historian of these musical genres.  One of the wonderful aspects of his shows and CDs is his sharing the stories behind the music.  He obviously does his research and homework.  When he is not touring Swanson is the house pianist at the historic Strater Hotel in downtown Durango, Colorado.  In addition, Swanson regularly posts his shows on YouTube.
 
 
Terry Waldo:  The Pianist Who Resurrected Ragtime
 
By the 1960s and early 1970s Ragtime had fallen into the musical doldrums.  The 1973 popular movie The Sting may have have returned the sounds of Ragtime to the public’s ears, but it was Waldo, the music historian, who told the art form’s story in his his twenty-six part NPR series in 1974, and then published his definitive history, This is Ragtime, 1976.  “Terry Waldo is the one to go to for the study of Ragtime.”  Wynton Marsalis.  Waldo started his “Gutbucket Syncopators” in 1969, and that year began a recording career in Ragtime, early Jazz, and the Great American Songbook that is still going. Today, Waldo performs both solo and with various bands in the New York City area.
 
https://terrywaldo.com
But wait!  There’s more …
John Heneghan, of the East River String Band, warns that a plague of shellac-devouring locusts will descend upon our 78 record collections if we fail to mention that there are other fantastic old time musicians out there–old musical souls housed in modern bodies–who play great music and deserve your attention. They can be found performing on YouTube, and most have their own websites.  Please click the button below to discover who you may be missing!
                                                    
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