It ain’t just what you do, but how you do it….some of the Bums’ repertoire: Five Foot Two, When You’re Smilin, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, The Hesitation Blues, Mistreat Me, Nine Below Zero, Take These Blues From Me, After You’re Gone, I Get The Blues When It Rain, Magic Eyes, Dancin’ With Dreams, I’ll Testify In The Church of The Blues, Driftin’ To Your Arms, Nobody Cares About Me, Those Lowdown Dirty Broken Hearted Blues, I’m Goin Way Out West, The Rollin Blues, To Yearn Like A Fool For Love, Ain’t Misbehavin, All of Me, Honey Don’t You Marry A Railroad Man, On The Sunny Side Of The Street, Darktown Strutters Ball, Doctor Jazz, Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter, My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It, Make Me A Pallet On The Floor, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, The Rollin’ Blues, Twilight On The Sagebrush…and more.
CW Bayer has been making up honky tonk songs for too long. His grandfather, Harry Bayer, was a twenties vaudevillian. His father, Albert Bayer, was a crooner. His great grand-father, Henry Bayer, was a Civil War musician. He writes songs the timeworn way–with a melody. Washboard Shirley doesn’t do shirts. It’s all we can do to keep her from dancing on the tables when we play the better saloons. She started playing one day by beating on a bathroom mirror with a hammer. “I continue to improve,” she says.
Kid Allen started out playing Bassoon in High school, but then came across a cheap Albert System clarinet, and switched to that because it was much harder. Shortly afterwards, he ran into a group of the original New Orleans jazz men, who were present at the very beginnings of “their” music in Big Easy, during the late 19th and early 20th century, and he apprenticed with them. He has been playing Albert clarinet and Mezzo-Soprano saxophone since 1968, but can also play Cornet, Trombone and Tuba.
Dr. Spitmore began his musical career singing in church as a child. His formal music training began with Renaissance and Baroque recorder music. On the night he performed the alto recorder solo in Carson City Symphony’s performance of “Peruvian Sunrise,” he heard someone play “Yes, We Have No Bananas” on a jug at the party which followed. Amazed at the tonal, dynamic, lyric, and versatile qualities of jug playing, Dr. Spitmore laid down his recorders and began his quest to find the perfect jug and master its capabilities. Unfortunately, bought in a dusty thrift store, his first jug had been used for pesticide. The vapors sent him to the hospital at his first practice session and all his hair fell out. Undaunted by this first failure, he found a usable jug that only contained a smallreside of strychnine which he was able to tolerate. Through determination and hard work, Dr. Sptimore is now considered the best jug player on his block. He is currently planning his first solo album and hopes to compete in this year’s International Jug Band Festival.
