33 f Phonocultural
The spirit of the old time medicine show is alive and well in the hands of Canada’s remarkable Sheesham, Lotus & Son. Sarah Coxsonwinds the handle.
I
like to collect pictures of other peo- ple’s families. No, that sounds weird. Let me re-phrase. If I happen upon old snapshots of other people’s fam- ilies – abandoned, curled, cracked,
coffee-cup stained and yellowing – on bric-a-brac stalls or junk shops, I feel obliged to take them home. I don’t like them to be left behind or forgotten. They have stories to tell… someone else’s Aunty Peggy in her horn-rimmed specta- cles and twin-set and her stern-faced betweeded chaperone Clara.
So, last Christmas, I was particularly delighted with a gift of Steve Roden’s …I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces: Music In Vernacular Photographs 1880-1955 on the wonderful Dust-To-Digi- tal label.
It is an intuitive (rather than academ- ic) collection – vintage 78rpm American recordings, excerpts of texts from a similar era and the most fascinating collection of music-related photographs – based on the author’s love affair with dust-covered dis- coveries and the stories held within. I’ve lost hours to this book, poring and puz- zling over the sepia-tinged photos. The stories to be told here are manifold. Sub- jects range from a one-armed one-man- band to starched-collared family ones. For- mal portraits of puff-sleeved glass orches- tras, tuxedoed musical saw trios and ele- gant South American ladies with guitars sit alongside moments captured informally on front porches. One of my favourites is a faded backyard Ozark mountain orchestra where the dungaree-clad fiddler seems totally lost to the music. Elaborate con- traptions show how pianos, trumpets and a string section could be made to play simultaneously, and a plethora of multi- cultural faces and instruments is docu- mented. There are bones, banjos, boxes, bouzoukis…and a whole heap of amplify- ing or Phonograph horns. Images of the sounds of RCA Victor.
Sheesham & Lotus & Son look like they have just walked out of the pages of this treasured tome. They have a sepia filter trained on all aspects of their performance – all bowler hats and pomade and watch- chains. The aesthetic is of a medicine show attraction – hawkers hollering, silent movie slapstick, novelty noise-machines and Dapper Dan dress sense supporting their sepiaphonicmonophone-filtered new old-time sound.
Eastern Ontario/Western Quebec-
based Teilhard Frost and Sam Allison (aka Sheesham Crow and Lotus Wight) devel- oped their enthusiasm for all things old-
timey back in the late ’90s when they began playing together as the rhythm sec- tion (Teilhard on washboard/fiddle and ‘Slappy Sam’ on bass) in a Canadian fiddle band called Flapjack. Touring extensively in Canada and the US during this period,
becoming instilled with the stamina, inten- sity and rhythm that dance music training provides, the pair became hooked on the old-time fiddle and banjo traditions of the American south, learning, as they travelled, from the players they encountered.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84