For Your Listening Pleasure

All the years I was growing up, my mother played in a small dance band. That's her seated at the piano with the Rhythmaires, the band she played with for most of that time. Almost every Saturday night they would head off to a nearby Moose Lodge or Elks Club for an evening of the latest dance tunes and old standards for those who liked to foxtrot or jitterbug. Meanwhile, my little brother and I were being spoiled enjoying a sleepover at Grandma's house.

Music was a big part of life at our house. Piano students arrived after school a couple of days a week to learn all about flats and sharps, and Mother could often be found at the piano tinkering around with some new song she'd heard on the radio. She didn't need the music; she could pick up the tune by ear. It was only after she was gone that we found a dozen or so original songs that she had written.

The Rhythmaires would show up to practice in our living room sometimes too. Now we didn't have a big house or any big rooms for that matter but still it was a fun experience when they all crowded into the living room and filled the whole house with their sounds. Not everyone gets to drift off to sleep to live music from the 40's and 50's but I did. 

Mother could play anything from church hymns to boogie woogie but I don't remember every hearing her sing. Oh, she might have joined in the chorus of Happy Birthday or some Christmas carols but was an accompanist, not a vocalist. That was why it was a surprise when, upon cleaning out the house after her death, we found a whole bunch of records that included her singing.

Yes, records...vinyl records just like the ones you'd buy in the store. They had rented or maybe borrowed a machine to cut your own records and there must be two dozen or more of them. I think the band might have been the motivation behind cutting the records but most of the ones we found in Mother's house are various family members singing while Mother plays the piano.

They're a challenge to play because they're recorded at all different speeds. The first track might be 78 and the next one 33-1/3 but they're priceless. And for a number of years I've tried to find a way to convert the records to a digital format so they could be saved and shared. I was reluctant to ship them off and couldn't find anyone locally so the records have stayed in a drawer. By pure coincidence, I discovered my older brother Jerry had the means to digitize the song when we were visiting him in Illinois last fall and when he was here earlier this month, he took a few back to experiment with.

They.are.a.hoot! Well, the few that he's converted and sent to me so far are anyway. Two are my step-dad singing with Mother playing the piano and occasionally singing harmony that is...shall we say, not always harmonious. And perhaps they're made even funnier by the fact that Daddy wasn't exactly the life of the party. He was kind of quiet actually, content to sit on the sidelines and let Mother be the entertainer. If I were guessing, I'd say there might have been a little John Barleycorn consumed at the recording sessions. And that's just part of what makes them a treasure.

It's cool to hear Mother tickle the ivories and see in my mind's eye Daddy's wry smile that I'm sure was on his face as he was singing this silly tune more than 60 years ago. Better still, I know there are more. Mother playing some of the original songs she wrote as well as the boogie woogies she was so good at; aunts and uncles singing off-key but clearly enjoying it; grandparents offering up birthday wishes; and even me as a toddler, singing with a little prodding when I forgot the words. Buttons and Bows, anyone? It's a precious gift to be able to hear all those voices saved at a time when there weren't many options for recording. And I couldn't be more grateful to Jerry for putting these into a form to share.

So, without further adieu, I bring you the evening's featured vocalist, Frank a/k/a Jr., with Lorene on the piano. The year is 1949 (although the following photo is later) and the tune is Wahoo. The words are at the end in case you want to sing along.

Wahoo MP3

OH! gimme a horse, a great big horse, and gimme a buckaroo
And let me Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! WAH-HOO!
OH! gimme a ranch, a big pair of pants, and gimme a stetson too,
And let me Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! WAH-HOO!
Give me the wide o-pen spaces...
For I'm just like a prairie flower,
Growing wilder by the hour.
OH! gimme a moon, a prairie moon, and gimme a gal what's true,
And let me Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! WAH-HOO!

OH! I never could sing a high class thing, good music I never knew,
But I can Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! WAH-HOO!
OH! I never could dance, 'cause when I dance I ruin the lady's shoe,
But I can Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! WAH-HOO!
It's just a gift from the prairie...
You shout it when a bad man jigs,
And it's very good for calling pigs.
I never could speak a word of Greek, I never could poop-poop-a-do,
But I can Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! WAH-HOO!

Comments

[Jude.x]

How exciting for you. Loved listening to that! :-) Lovely memories for you. As a family we have cine film, taken mostly by Dad, that we can no longer watch because we can't get the parts for the projector, and digitising is so expensive. But I'm now going to look around again to see if I can find somewhere cheaper.... thanks for sharing. Jude.x

[Linda j]

Priceless!!!

[Jan]

How fabulous is that! And your mom was so beautiful. I'm so glad for you that you found a way to preserve these recordings. I have been able to convert our very small set of audio tape recordings to mp3 files and my old family videos are safely on a couple of external hard drives and DVD's. My dad had the old reel movies converted to VHS format back in the 80s and then I converted those to DVD. Priceless memories.

[Linda P]

Boy, we never got to have that much fun at my house! :)

[Rene Lewis]

That was truly lovely. Now this is real music - not that boom-boom-boom I hear constantly on the radio today. I would have loved to have been in the room when they were singing that. Thank you so much for sharing!

[Suzeyq]

What a wonderful gift! Thanks for sharing! We had some slides of vacations we took together. I should see if they are still around!