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Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!!
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Subject: Robert Brown:Washboard Player Extraordinaire!! From: harpgirl Date: 15 Jul 01 - 11:41 AM Robert Brown, "Washboard Sam", Born July 15, 1910, Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Died November 13, 1968, Chicago, Illinois. Happy birthday Washboard Sam!!!! "Robert Brown, perhaps the best known practitioner of this rudimentary instrument, was born in rural Arkansas. He was playing professionally in the Memphis area as a teenager, and moved to Chicago in 1932, where, like so many other struggling musicians, he initially worked with street singers for tips. In addition to such blues men as Hammie Nixon, Sleepy John Estes, Bukka White, and Jazz Gillium, Brown also worked with his half-brother, Big Bill Broonzy during his early years in Chicago. One of the few washboard players whose voice was full enough to be heard above the instrument, he recorded sporadically for a number of labels, over a thirty-five year span, including Bluebird, Vocalion, Victor, and Spivey." Bob Schneiders, Liner Notes, "Big Bill Broonzy and Washboard Sam, Chess, MCA Records, 1961, 1986 When I lived in Arkansas in the late 70's, there was a washboard player that I jammed with a lot but I can not remember what he called himself. Anyone rememeber him? He had a wonderful wild "field hippy" look....harpgirl |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: wysiwyg Date: 15 Jul 01 - 11:53 AM BRB-- on Thursday. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Cappuccino Date: 15 Jul 01 - 11:59 AM You just can't find the right kind of washboard these days - was it tin or aluminium they were made of? I'd love to get hold of one. - Ian B |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: harpgirl Date: 15 Jul 01 - 12:21 PM Bright eyes Robert Brown (Washboard Sam) Bright eyes, bright eyes I haven't found my way home Bright eyes, bright eyes, I haven't found my way home Tell ya when I woke up this morning hoooo, had my woman layin in my arms I was fightin all them changes[sic] Roaches [sic] always havin fun Yeah I was fightin them changes [sic], roaches[sic] always havin fun Well, well when I woke up my woman had a six shootin shotin' gun I say put that thing down, it liable explode in your hands Hey, put that thing down woman, it liable explode in your hand Say ya know I been workin hard for ya all this summer You wont that things have you without a man I'll be [ ] call, home [sic] Well, I haven't quite got all the words. Can someone fill them in? Thanks....hg |
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Subject: Robert Brown Songs! From: harpgirl Date: 15 Jul 01 - 12:28 PM Here are some more of his song titles Shirt Tail Minding My Own Business Never, Never, Horeshoe Over My Door I'm a Lonely Man Diggin My Potatoes (Sunny Joe) Anyone have words handy, or links?....hg |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Allan C. Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:01 PM IanB, there is hardly anything else that can produce the tones of a brass washboard. But, as you say, you can't get the good ones anymore. I am curious as to what means others might use to stroke them. I have seen fingerpicks, spoons and wire whisks used. What else have you guys seen employed as strumming/striking tools? (As I wrote this, I was wondering to myself what it might sound like to use those chain mail gloves that butchers sometimes wear.) |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Snuffy Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:07 PM It's very common in England to have metal thimbles on your three middle fingers when playing washboard. Add in a lagerphone and a few morris men banging beer glasses or snuff tins on the table, and you've got an instant backing group (no musical knowledge reuqired!!) Wassail! V |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Snuffy Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:19 PM I have also seen a plastic credit card used as a washboard plectrum (I think it was an out of date one) |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Rick Fielding Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:28 PM I use a Bilt-rite Tin model. Nice tone. Here's a little invention that I've mentioned before on Mudcat. Hope it's useful. Get your thimbles together, but don't worry if they're a bit on the large side (some folks pinch 'em to make 'em fit.) Take some white elastic (one inch wide) waistband material (available in strips at any department store) and glue it (with contact cement) around the thimble. Leave about three quarters of an inch off the thimble. Pull it quite tight before glueing, so that you really have to wiggle each finger a bit to get it past the elastic and into the thimble. The elastic will keep the thimble firmly in place (without pain) and you won't lose the circulation in your finger-tips. Cheers Rick |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Mr Red Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:51 PM IanB If it looks like brass - it is. If it looks like tin & don't rust it's made of zinc. If it looks like glass - good luck to yer. Mine is a mite small & I was told it was a kiddies plaything but is definitely zinc and easier to carry around. Thimbles? now there's a thing - I found alsorts (stainless, mazak & iron) but especially a small brass one to fit my little finger don't use it much now 'cos I lost interest & it ain't red. |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: harpgirl Date: 15 Jul 01 - 02:36 PM Ahhh, my old Arkansas hippy friend was "Washboard Leo"!!! Anyone know him? |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Cappuccino Date: 15 Jul 01 - 03:03 PM Thank you - 'zinc' was the word I was looking for. But these instruments always fool me - I never did master the art of making a tea-chest bass, and making a lagerphone is still an ambition. But there is an idea of some of us getting together in a gospel/skiffle band, so perhaps...! (The gospel/skiffle, I might add, was inspired by that incredible live album of Lonnie Donegan, Van Morrison, Chris Barber, and Doctor John - Wow) - Ian B |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST,Celtic Soul Date: 16 Jul 01 - 08:34 AM When dealing with the same conundrum of where to find a decent washboard, I would up at local antique stores. To my delight, I found all sorts! Brass, "tin", and glass. I can't say I could duplicate the same results on any other given day, but the day I went, there were many to be had. :D |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST Date: 16 Jul 01 - 09:42 AM I use and old tipper on my Zinc washboard. I'll have to try a wisk. Thanks for the tip on modifying the thimbles as to this point I have not found thimbles that would work well for me. Gary |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 16 Jul 01 - 09:47 AM Try this site:http://www.washboards.com/ RtS (just back at work and really too busy to read or post!) |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: RWilhelm Date: 16 Jul 01 - 11:31 AM Here's a great source for washboards: Columbus Washboard Co. Here's one of my favorite Washboard Sam songs: I'm Gonna Keep My Hair Parted – Washboard Sam
Worried now, Won't be Worried Long
Chours:
I got a gal lives down by the jail
Goin up on the mountain look down in the sea
Me and my baby we bought a Ford
Standin on the corner 25th and Main
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Rick Fielding Date: 16 Jul 01 - 12:45 PM Jeezus, Washboard sam had a way with lyrics! Not sure what he's talkin' about...but it's got me thinkin'. By the way, just a bit of trivia. Sam was a Chicago Cop for many years. Rick |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST Date: 17 Jul 01 - 12:23 AM Great website. Been looking for a washboard for a while now. Thanks Earl |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: SeanM Date: 17 Jul 01 - 12:51 AM Band I was in for a while had a washboard (I played jug. Yes, it was THAT kind of band). We picked ours up from Lark in the Morning. I think the ones our player used were the zinc kind. Don't remember them rusting, but they weren't very heavy and did look kinda tin-ish. I think I'm frightened by the "Zydeco Tie" from the above site though... *shudder* M
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 17 Jul 01 - 03:54 AM I'm still looking for a UK supplier. Driffield Music, the only one I traced, have ceased trading. Just think how much quicker I could empty a room with washboard AND kazoo! (I also wondered about those metal butcher's gloves rather than thimbles). RtS |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: SeanM Date: 17 Jul 01 - 04:09 AM Roger, You get those attached-at-the-knee cymbals and you might be able to get yourself banned under the NATO war crimes acts... M |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: SeanM Date: 17 Jul 01 - 04:51 AM OK... after standard obeisance at the altar of Google... I don't know if it'll make it easier if it's in Europe as opposed to North America, but there's a guy in Amsterdam, working under the name Rubboard. There's also a lot from Hobgoblin Music, but they don't list washboards in their catalog. You might be able to email them to see if they either have them and don't list them, or if they can point you in the right way... Hope this helps! M |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 17 Jul 01 - 08:48 AM Sean, yes I've looked at those sites too. RtS (now off to be taught Dreamweaver (in an hour? Do our techies know the idiot they're dealing with?) RtS |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: wysiwyg Date: 01 Sep 01 - 01:06 AM I can't remember how and when I became a washboard player, but I did... Hardiman bought me a brand-new medium one; I guess it's aluminum. I use metal fingerpicks and a metal thumbpick usually, but sometimes wooden thimbles. I play that one when I want as much volume as a bodhran player. *G* A few years ago we went, for the first time since I was a small girl, up to the old family Adirondack cabin. The first part of the structure built was a tiny sapling-framed, clapboarded one-man cabin. We still have the diary entries made each day as the fellow built it, ordered by his doctor to head for the dry, cold mountains for his health, and his materials list includes the prices, ca. 1905 or 1907 (CRS). He got it done in time for the first winter, and he did get better. In a later year he had a bear encounter, and although he won the encounter, and had a newspaper photo of the loser to show for it, eventually the injuries got him. "Camp" (as it was soon called) passed down to the father of three growing young men. The rest of the buildings followed, encircling the original cabin, as the place attracted more and more family members. The extended family would repair up to Camp each summer by wagon for a summer of upstate creek fishing, wild strawberry shortcake, and croquet in the large clearing that separated the cabin from the 55 wild acres surrounding it. By then a white enamel woodstove had been added in a real lino-floored kitchen, and I am sure it warmed the cold mountain nights, too. Water all these years has been driven up from a large adjoining creek, by ram. It's no longer potable, but it's good for washing, and at some point that tiny original cabin section became a bathroom, complete with enameled iron claw-footed tub. There is JUST enough water pressure, from the small holding tank suspended outside the bathroom window, to get clean hair. *G* If you turn the pump on while you are in there. And you can handwash your "delicates" in that tub too, if you are feeling too anti-social to run down to the small town and its dingy laundromat. In that tiny cabin live all the tools of Camp. So in addition to the nice tub and sink, there is the water heater, the tool shelf, the string for making a line to hang bathing suits, and every first aid item known to man from the last century. And all of the originator's tools are there, along with what has been added by each succeeding generation of tool users (male and female). They ain't decorations either, although I am sure there are restaurants, etc., that would love to get their hands on these items as decor. So it was only natural that alongside the tub there hung, that year we came back to Camp, two washboards. One was a tiny tin one, about the size of a pice of legal-size paper. I played it one night and hung it back up. I must admit that I coveted it; but I gave no hint of it, or so I thought. The day before we left, our cousin Francy, who now is the Queen of Camp, came to me, washboard in hand. She wanted me to have it, and in typical North-country fashion, little was said. But I play it. Its tin-on-wood striking surface makes the most lovely sound as the strike echoes between the tin and the wood. And the wood slats are just loose enough-- shrunk with age-- to rattle every time it is struck. When I turn it over and use my palm on the wood, it gives a mellow, quietly-strong sound. I like to think it belonged to Bert, the first occupant, who must have been mellow and quietly-strong himself, from the stories I've heard. I like to think that washboard was his small acknowledgement of the importance of maintaining at least a modicum of civilization as he became virtually a mountain man. No one knows for sure just when it turned up, you see. And me? I don't really want to know! It fits just right in my smallest instrument case. ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST,marymarymary Date: 01 Sep 01 - 08:43 PM All of y'all who are looking for washboards -- have you tried the corner hardware store? I've seen them in the stores around here (Missouri) and I got mine at a hardware store back home (Kentucky.) I got an electric washing machine last year and the damn washboard hit the trash heap about five seconds later, otherwise I'd have been glad to donate my Dubl-Handi to one of you poor folks who hail from washboard-deprived regions... |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST Date: 29 Aug 06 - 09:34 PM |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Liz the Squeak Date: 30 Aug 06 - 04:38 AM Let's not and say we did.... LTS |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Sooz Date: 30 Aug 06 - 04:48 AM I've just been given a glass washboard and am wondering what to do with it....... |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: erinmaidin Date: 30 Aug 06 - 04:56 AM I used to play in an all women band and we sometimes used washboards for sort of a "statement", one song in particular was "The Housewive's Lament". I always agonized about how long it took to get the thimbles on as we liked to keep the music rolling along during performances. I got the idea of taking a pair of inexpensive gloves and cutting just a wee hole in the tips of the fingers. Then I would force the thimbles thru making a nice tight fit. That meant I only had to put the gloves on and I was ready to go. I think it's one of my better ideas! (scary huh?) |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Leadfingers Date: 30 Aug 06 - 06:46 AM White cotton gloves with a small length of chain stitched to the finger ends - NOT my idea - saw a chap at Caversham Skiffle session playing washboard using them ! As Erinmaiden says , a lot easier to put on than a full set of thimbles . |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: Midchuck Date: 30 Aug 06 - 08:30 AM Your attention is respectfully directed to the "Worst Singaround/Session Rudeness Ever" thread, in which I stated that: Of course, washboard players who attempt to join a jam that isn't jug band stuff, or zydeco, may be killed without notice, let, or hindrance. I see no reason to retreat from that position. Peter |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: HiHo_Silver Date: 30 Aug 06 - 08:53 AM FYI: Most homes in my area (East Coast of Canada) had washboards back in the late thiries and early forties and many can still be found in the antique shops and some of the older country homes, I have on myself which was used by my mother. Nearly all washboards in this area were woood frames with glass board. Sounded great and someone would usually get them out and play them at kitchen parties.These were quite sturdy and I do not recall one ever breaking under normal playing or use. Would be played sometimes with wooden sticks, brushes, finger picks, or sewing thimbles which were readily available in most homes. |
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Subject: RE: Washboard Playing: Let's talk about it!! From: GUEST,Jim Date: 30 Aug 06 - 12:14 PM Try fastening the thimbles onto golf gloves with elctrical tape. I got this idea from Washboard Hank and it works well. As for the glass washboards, I removed the glass and replaced it with a couple of old licence plates. They make a really loud washboard. ('Cause we all know most washboards don't have near enough volume) |
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