About Me
"EXTEMPORANEOUS TALES FROM HOKUMVILLE"There came a time in the life of Rev C Arthur Muddbone, aka Rev'rend "Goodtime" Charley, when the most difficult thing to do was look at himself in the bathroom mirror. After years of rambling, raconteuring, and honing - to a respectable degree - his talents as a blues/rock singer/guitarist, the Rev'rend packed in the whole business: too many nights on the bandstand "titillating the emotional palate of the college aged and young adult audiences" had taken its toll. The goodtime duo of the Rev'rend and "Blind Man" Dan had run it's course, the first pairing of the Rev and Mike in the folk/blues duo Bop-Shoo-Op ended when Mikey joined a punk rock band wanting to write original material and turn Japanese, and the raucous twosome of the Rev'rend and piano wildman Jack "88's" Mashburn had no prospects after his sad suicide.
Flash forward through many years at a day gig as a salesman - as in traveling - and a compulsive diet of coffee, bacon, eggs, toast, burgers, Jack Daniels, Joseph Conrad, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Elison, Charles Bukowski, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Dave Van Ronk, John Fahey, Fred Neil, Gus Cannon, Mississippi Sheiks, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Rice Miller, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, Leon Redbone, John Sebastian, Lovin' Spoonful, Tim Buckley, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Geoff & Maria Muldaur, Jim Dickinson, Ry Cooder, Captain Beefheart, Little Feat, Doc Watson, and the Carter Family. Days with a lap-top melded into nights with a record player, digging the likes of Martin, Bogan & Armstrong, Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Jim Jackson, Papa Charlie Jackson, Tampa Red, Georgia Tom Dorsey, Rev Robert Wilkins, Beale Street Sheiks, Washboard Sam, Bo Carter, Rev Gary Davis, Ishman Bracey, Charley Patton, Gabby Pahinui, Bob Marley, Taj Mahal, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Hokum Boys, Emmett Miller, Cats & the Fiddle, Furry Lewis, Don Nix, Tom Waits, John Hammond, and Rory Block. It was a solitary existence. Then, one day, shortly before the turn of the century, a new face entered his world: The Tuz from Santa Cruz.
An evening performance with the Tuz and Lou Spoltore in Nashville, TN, was perhaps the catalyst for the Rev'rend's maturation. In no time, his desire to perform returned. This time, however, not as a guitar wielding poseur - of which the world has so many exquisite examples - but, rather, as something new, something unique, something...
One night, in a dream, a vision came to the Rev'rend that suggested the idea of a jug band/string band as a viable medium for expression; not as in Lovin' Spoonful and Jim Kweskin (entertainment icons, though they were), but rather as in Mississippi Sheiks, Memphis Jug Band, Cannon's Jug Stompers, and Memphis Mudcats.
The Rev'rend seized this notion - a band as an evolving entity - a core of musicians periodically joined by other bands and musicians - constantly changing, seeking to have and spread fun.
..
Next, into Rev's possession came a photograph from the early 1900's. A band of bizarre characters holding musical instruments. What caught the Rev'rend's eye in this picture, however, were the rhythm instruments: a jug and a washboard. From this image, the Rev'rend fashioned an idea: he would arrange music for a group like the one in the photograph, totally eschewing the tired formula of guitar-bass-n-drums. Embracing instead the sound of metal body resonator guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, ukulele, bass, harmonica, bass harmonica, kazoo, and...jug and washboard!
With this new-formed vision and a list of musician friends (including Mike, who had returned from Japan and retired from music), Rev began the task of creating a band..an 'orkestra' for the new century.
