Thanks PHJim!
Tell me bout the plectrum guitar. there was a guy called Johnny Handle who used to play the English folkscene and he played a four sring guitar. It seemed to have thick strings and he played sort of bass lines on it intersprersed with his chords. I always thought it was perhaps the same thing that Condon played. But I never knew.

Leeneia

Mound City as in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis,_Missouri#Cityscape

See the second paragraph in the history section.

Red McKenzie was an ex-jockey working as a bell hop at The Claridge Hotel, St Louis. Dick Slevin worked across the street as a soda jerk. Their first record(recorded Feb 23rd 1924 at the Brunswick Studio in Chicago) was Arkansas Blues and it sold a million copies.