What exactly is a "Todalo"? First of all, it's pronounced "TOE-dah-low." It's closely related to "diddy-wah-diddy", and crops up occasionally in obscure old blues songs: "I'm satisfied, satisfied, my todalo shaker by my side" is a line from the Memphis Jug Band classic "You May Leave, But This Will Bring You Back." The Todalo
Shakers includes Eric Thompson on mandolin and guitar,
W.B. Reid on banjo-guitar and fiddle, Suzy Thompson on fiddle and
guitar, Frannie Leopold on guitar, and Steven Strauss on bowed bass.
All five of the Todalo Shakers sing, Eric and Suzy Thompson have long been known for their bluesy string band music. Now they've formed the Todalo Shakers with 3 other longtime musical compatriots and have recorded an album of vintage jug band blues and old time rags & stomps which sound like they are lifted right out of 1928 in Memphis, Tennessee or Dallas, Texas. The other Todalo Shakers include Steven Strauss, playing bowed bass for the very first time on this recording. Strauss has played string bass with countless well-known Bay Area artists, including punk songstress Penelope Houston (during her folky phase), bluesman Charles Brown, and the Hot Club of San Francisco. Mendocino's Frannie Leopold, who plays guitar, has toured and recorded with New Mexico's Jeanie McLerie as the Delta Sisters, and with Hank Bradley and Cathie Whitesides as the Balkan Kafe Orchestra. Bruce "W.B." Reid, who makes his home in Seattle, Washington, spent some of his formative years during his early twenties hanging out in San Diego with bluesman Sam Chatmon, of the legendary string band the Mississippi Sheiks. Bruce has toured and recorded with For Old Times Sake (a contra dance band), with oldtime fiddler Lee Stripling, with the Bing Bang Boys (featuring the Canote Twins) and most recently, with his wife Bonnie Zahnow and with the Carolina Jug Stompers.
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King Rag |
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Habit Blues |
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Cat Blues |
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Rat Swing |
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