Not My Victrola

Black and Tan Fantasy,performed by Clyde McCoy, and uploaded to YouTube by bsgs98; His Notes:

"Clyde McCoy (1903 - 1990) assembled his first band in 1920 playing in a Knoxville Tennessee resort and then took his group to New York and played along the East Coast for several years. In 1924 he relocated to California and the band toured in the Los Angeles area. He began to use a trumpet mute and developed a style that produced the "wah-wah" sound that was to become his signature. In 1930 while performing at Drake Hotel in Chicago he first performed "Sugar Blues" and it became his first hit. Within a year he signed his first record contract with Columbia Records and on January 22, 1931 he recorded "Sugar Blues" which became a huge hit and it sold several million copies.

"Black and Tan Fantasy" was written by Bubber Miley and Duke Ellington in 1927 and it featured the growling and muted trumpet of Miley. It seems obvious that McCoy used this tune to demonstrate his own muted trumpet tricks. McCoy's arrangement is quite faithful to the original Ellington version, but slower. It also omits the piano solo that's on the Ellington recording(s). While McCoy is no match to Ellington's Orchestra and Miley's trumpet, you have to give him credit for a great cover of this Ellington classic."

And Here, is how Duke Ellington recorded it, and how you would have listened to it eighty years ago, courtesy of mlaprarie.

Weekend Steam

Many years ago, at a long forgotten estate auction, the Mrs and I bought three parts catalogs in a box of books.  I know nothing about Leader steam engines and threshers, and a quick search on the internet does not turn up much.

The fellow who had these books must have been in the threshing business for many years, because the books show a progression of engines from the era of web stackers, and then larger engines that were necessary to run threshers with wind stackers.

These are good looking engines, and I think they are pretty rare today.  This link will take you to a photo on Smokstak of a Leader engine at a show fifty years ago.

A Couple of Revolver Basics

Jacqueline over at Great Satan, Inc is the lucky winner of the Single-Ten revolver donated by Ruger for Project Valour-IT. She wrote in the comments of the Minimum Ruger Requirement post, "revolver is one of my weak areas." Ruger single action revolvers are good vehicles to learn the basics of revolver shooting, and I have been around them so long that I forget others may not know how to operate them efficiently. These videos are for Jacqueline, and anyone else who is new to revolvers.

The first video shows Cowboy Action Shooter Jim Finch (NSSF video)demonstrating the basics of manipulating the hammer for quick shooting. Old western movies often showed revolvers being fanned, but that method is very inaccurate, and can damage the notches in old style single action guns, rendering them unsafe. The method Mr. Finch demonstrates is something I learned from a Skeeter Skelton article about thirty years ago, and it could be a valuable skill in a self defense situation. Skeeter wrote that he practiced this method with the butt of the pistol against his belt buckle for those times when the action was way too close for comfort.

The second video is good old Hickok45 providing a demonstration of the power of the gas that escapes the cylinder gap. New revolver shooters take note that you never want to have your fingers around the front of that cylinder.

Almost A Ghost

We are beset by strokes, it seems.  The Mrs.' father, then Toopie; the Mrs.' mother, and now Bart.  I had just returned from Iowa Monday night (Labor Day) when I heard Bart fall behind me, and I witnessed him struggling to get up as his tail twisted to the left.  I put him in a soft bed, and in about ten minutes, he was up and wobbling around.  I took Tuesday off and took him to the vet, and now every morning I pill him to keep his heart in rhythm and to thin his blood.  Pilling a cat is not something you take lightly.  I had the vet give me a good lesson, and so far, Bart takes it well.  Before I pick him up by the scruff of his neck I repeat to myself, "All Cats Are Always Loaded."  Bart is worth the risk.

Never Forget

One's Too Many....

...and a hundred's not enough.  This fellow might be just a little obsessed.  Kinda like me and my old records.  Some people would want to put us in a program.

Pocketa-Pocketa-Pocketa; Real Walter Mitty Sound Effects!

At Pinckneyville.

Who'd I Say Huh? To?

Who didn't I say it to, is more like it.  Go to the big city for a day, and this shows up in my mailbox.  Sheesh.

Another Typical Monday, Coming Right Up!

Looks Awful Familiar; Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola

Well, I'll be switched! cdbpbx has a Brunswick with the three-way tonehead, just like our machine!  You see the tonehead turned over in this video to play an Edison Diamond Disc, and that works OK if no-one walks across the floor with heavy feet.  Edison discs have shallow grooves, and the Edison machines that play them have a mechanical feed that pulls the tone arm across the disc, so there is no force that would make the needle skip.  This Brunswick, however, has no feed, and the tone arm is pulled along by the groove in the disc.  It usually works.  Worn records or unlevel floors will play havoc with it, though.

The song has an interesting topic.  Blacksmiths had to adapt or starve during the 1920's, and then in the 1930's the Depression came along.  Have you seen the old hand powered gasoline pumps with the clear glass tops?  A trick used by service station owners back then was to pump up gasoline during idle times on sunny days, leaving a little room at the top.  Sunshine would warm the gas, making it expand about ten percent.  I guess on cold days they did NOT pump gas up ahead of time.