October 15, 2005,
THE INDIES: A SONIC TONIC

By TODD MARTENS

One of the fall's more curious and enlightening CD sets comes from acclaimed reissue label Old Hat Records. The 48-song collection "Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-1937," released Oct. 4, documents the banjo-pickers and bluesmen who performed during the shows' latter years, humorously drawing from folk, blues and advertising traditions.

As elixir catalogs and other artifacts of the medicine-show era fade into eBay oblivion, Old Hat founder Marshall Wyatt has carefully captured the shows' mix of artistry and novelty. There is a comic narration from Blind Willie McTell, performing here as Blind Sammie, and such nearly forgotten oddities as Lil McClintock's wandering ragtime medley "Don't Think I'm Santa Claus."

"The big sort of realization that sunk into me over the course of this project is that the medicine shows were a proving ground for blues and hillbilly artists across the South," Wyatt says. "Jobs were scarce, but you could usually get a job on a medicine show. It was pretty low-rung on the entertainment ladder."

This is Old Hat's fifth and largest release, with a 74-page booklet that details the origins of each song. It is also the Raleigh, N.C.-based label's first multidisc package. The collection should appeal to archivists, blues fans and No Depression hipsters, but despite being Old Hat's most expensive package to date, it is missing from the label Web site.

"I hadn't gotten around to that, is the bottom line," Wyatt's partner Harris Wray says. "I like the idea that we're not giving things away so easily, even if it's just information. I may be alone in thinking this way."

The tiny label cannot afford retail co-op positioning or magazine ads. Old Hat has printed 10,000 copies of the $29.95 set, and will rely largely on press to inspire holiday sales.

"In a way, it niches itself as a hard piece to sell," says Steve Dixon, sales director for Redeye Distribution in Haw River, N.C. "From a marketing and promotion standpoint, we're taking a back-to-basics approach and not doing much marketing. It's very word-of-mouth and grass roots."

Wray describes it as a "make-or-break" set for the label, which is dedicated to keeping its releases in print.

"I think this will do well, but if the tenor of the whole enterprise doesn't change, it's going to be different in the future," Wray says. "The new one is supposed to sell the old one. The last title is only one disc, but it has a 72-page booklet and is expensive to manufacture. If no money is around, how can we keep it in print? We've managed to so far, but maybe at our own personal expense."

But Wyatt is not concerned about having to scale back if "Good for What Ails You" does not meet expectations. "Even if I had the funding, I'm not keen on doing an eight-disc set," he says. "I'd want to hone it down. Even a single CD with a 32-page booklet is more than the average CD, so we could still do some gems."



ETC.: Indie labels have not exactly jumped on the DualDisc bandwagon, but this fall sees more action on the CD/DVD-hybrid front. Burning Music Productions released veteran reggae artist Burning Spear's latest, "One Disc," Sept. 20 on DualDisc, and Music Video Distributors and Guerrilla Man- agement will issue Michael Franti & Spearhead's "Live in Sydney" Nov. 15. ••••