The Essential Hoosier Hot Shots

The Hoosier Hot Shots were a highly skilled quartet whose silly songs and down-home ditties became some of the first and most successful novelty tracks of the 20th century. America used their corny sense of humor and surprisingly adept instrumentation as a sonic salve while collectively recovering from the Great Depression. As their moniker suggests, brothers Ken (guitar/banjo) and Hezzie Triesch (aka "Paul," percussion), Otto "Gabe" Ward (clarinet), and Frank Kettering (bass) were Indiana natives. Their rural roots music blends with a performance style steeped in both the showy vaudevillian "make 'em laugh" ethos with some rather involved swing and ragtime jazz flavors. The band became regionally successful in the early '30s on the National Barn Dance broadcast, bringing them into the living rooms of millions every Saturday night over the 50,000-watt WLS out of Chicago, IL. In 1934 the Hoosier Hot Shots commenced an, as of then, unparalleled recording career. Their off-the-wall madness would become just as popular throughout America's juke joints as they were on their weekly radio appearances. Definitive Hoosier Hotshots Collection (2003) gathers over three dozen cornpone classics on a two-CD set. Among the best-known sides are "Them Hillbillies Are Mountain Willies Now," "Meet Me by the Ice House, Lizzie," and "Wah-Hoo." Merry melodies such as "I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)," "Noah's Wife (Lived a Wonderful Life)," and "From the Indies to the Andes in His Undies" would become timeless summer-camp song fodder for generations. The Hot Shots also did bizarre remakes of more traditional material such as "My Blue Heaven," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie," and a salute to the obscure blues of pianist Lem Fowler's "Washboard Stomp." Although there is a bit of overlap, Definitive Hoosier Hotshots Collection is a tremendous companion to the single-disc compendium Havin' Fun With the Hoosier Hotshots (2003) — both of which are exclusively available from Collectors' Choice Music. Noted musicologist Colin Escott's liner essay provides a biographical overview as well as thorough discographical information.