I’ve been through a few musical phases in my life; indie, the blues, hip-hop, rock, and country have all commanded my attention at times. Never have I been through a ragtime phase, but this new album from The Vaudevillian has got me feeling those jugband vibes. I’m digging their old-timey sounds that feel refreshingly new.
On their latest album Sellin’ Jelly, Norah Spades and Jitterbug James will deliver you into a world of lingo and slang you may not understand. It’s either taken from the 1930s or invented altogether by this Vaudevillian duo. I’m not sure if “I grind so fine” refers to musical ability or sexual prowess or if biscuits really are just biscuits (unlikely). But some references aren’t as ambiguous like on Caught Us Doin’ It when they’re actually caught in the act of making love in the parlour.
The album feels like a concept album, based around ‘jelly’, which the kids today might call ‘riz’ or what I might call ‘swagger’ or what we all just might call ‘sex.’ In a music industry where sex is now sung about so literally (looking at you Cardi B), it’s fun to hear this duo’s creative attempts to stretch language. When you look down the tracklist, it’s clear that jelly isn’t the only innuendo being used: Play With Your Yoyo, Stick My Pin In Your Cushion, I Found Your Keyhole, Wet My Whistle, and The Nasty Swing.
“You might go East/ you might go West/ don’t matter baby/ My yoyo’s the best,” Jitterbug James croons on Play With Your Yoyo, while his partner Norah Spades chimes in from time to time with a high-pitched “Now is that right?” and “Walk the dog”. At one point she tells James to “pick it up already” and he listens, quickening the rhythm. Norah hovers in the background of every tune to add a playful dialogue.
The finger picking is right out of Mississippi a hundred years ago, a sound that also intrigued bands like The White Stripes at times for the slang and mythmaking of the American South. It might be a sound that bubbled up from 1930s America, but The Vaudevillian give it their own Canadian spin by referencing places like Etobicoke.
The opening ditty and title track uses banjo and kazoo to tell the story of a love story between a sex worker and her lover. “Make a living sellin’ jelly/ but she don’t charge me the toll,” James sings. Your Biscuits Are Plenty Big Enough For Me furthers the innuendos with lines like “I don’t want any more sugar in your jelly roll you see/ Your jelly roll is plenty sweet enough for me.”
Dead Man Rise opens with a resonator guitar that leads to the chorus: “what she got ain’t no surprise/ can make a dead man rise.”
My favourite is All Around Man for the cleverly worded lines like “I’m no lawyer, ma’am but I can get you off until your lawyer comes.” The narrator also takes a hand at playing doctor and mechanic in this one.
Remember we talked about fun banjo picking? None of My Jelly Roll and Grind So Fine are two great examples of it and will bring a smile to your face if you’re a music fan.
You don’t have to head down to the Delta or travel in time to see this cool jugband sound brought to life. Just head down Highway 21 to the crossroads of where Port Elgin meets Lake Huron, and where The Vaudevillian call home. And find the album on Bandcamp. It’ll be sure to get your head bopping with some fun banjo picking and carzoobamaphone blowing (not a sexual innuendo).
Written by Jesse Wilkinson
