The Washboard Serenaders (or was it the Washboard Rhythm Kings?) had one of the best, if not
the best,
fake trumpet players who ever walked the earth. 'Course, their
washboard player weren't no slouch, neither.
Now, there seems to have been a lot of overlapping personnel in some of these various washboard bands of the 20s and 30s, and there is some confusion as to which band is which: the Washboard Serenaders? The Washboard Rhythm Kings? Some other Washboard band? Well, I can't clear it all up, exactly, but there's a little more information
here at answers.com and a very scanty Wiki page on the washboard Rhythm Kings
here.
Here's a MySpace page for the
Washboard Rhythm Kings: a few tunes on the player there to listen to.
And over at the good ol' Internet Archive you can hear the Washboard Serenaders'
Kazoo Moan, featuring more of that totally badass fake trumpetry, on, of course, the kazoo. Of course, you know what a kazoo is, but you might still wanna check
my kazoo post from back in 2006, for more information and history on that noble American instrument.
And, BTW, as far as I can tell, it seems pretty sure that the first video link in this post is the Serenaders, and the second, though credited to the Serenaders, is the Rhythm Kings. It so happens, in fact, that the very same clip as you see in the 2nd link appears elsewhere on YT credited to the Rhythm Kings, but the quality isn't nearly as good.
posted by doctor_negative at 8:01 AM on September 22, 2010