COMPACT
DISC REVIEW
By
Jack Rummel
Rag Time Skedaddlers
Mandophone CD0901
Ma Ragtime Baby / Whistling Rufus / Bowery Buck / Doc Brown’s Cakewalk / Maple Leaf Rag / Impecunious Davis / A Tally Ho Party / Creole Belles / The Entertainer / Peaches and Cream / Dixie Blossoms / Tobasco / That Poker Rag / Dixie Twilight / Temptation Rag.
Mandolin orchestras and string band ensembles were all the rage in 1901 when Scott Joplin dedicated his rag, The Entertainer, to “James Brown and his Mandolin Club.” However, the craze was short-lived and by 1973 when Dennis Pash founded the
Etcetera String Band, such groups in
Pash didn’t lay low for long, thank goodness, and the ghosts of Charlie Johnson and other Midwestern composers can again be heard emanating from the strings of Pash’s new group, the Rag Time Skedaddlers. Nick Robinson’s mandolin provides occasional lead and lots of tasteful harmony to Pash’s banjo-mandolin (banjolin?) melodies, while fellow Bay Area musician Dave Krinkel adds the critical rhythm anchor and bass melody lines on his guitar.
Johnson has a quartet of tunes on this CD (Doc
Brown’s Cakewalk, A Tally Ho Party,
How these three musicians found each other in an area the size of
This isn’t just music for mandolin players or string band lovers. This is ragtime for ragtime lovers and the Rag Time Skedaddlers are the real deal. Recommended.
Available for $15.00 plus shipping from http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/RagTimeSkedaddlers . Or it can be downloaded there (mp3) for $9.99. Individual tracks can also be downloaded for 99¢ each.