Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers - Kickapoo Medicine Show (CA)

All Music Guide

When it comes down to it, and record collectors are hanging off a cliff deciding to grab at a tree root or a particular side, a record like this is going to make the difference between life and death. "Once you've heard this you've heard everything," was the way this record was described by one collector, whose outstretched arms were meant to encompass a collection of thousands of records from different genres, all of which are apparently rendered obsolete by the collective playing of Gid Tanner, Clayton McMichen, and Riley Puckett. It is true that as far as super trios go, this one leaves them all in the dust, from Cream to the Three Stooges. And this is not mere hyperbole. The musical invention is way beyond Clapton, and in between segments of instrumental virtuosity the band actually pulls off little comedy skits, such as the nonsense which opens up the album. Turned up loud enough, a listener might be able to convince neighbors that deranged hillbillies have moved in, perhaps resul...ting in a new-neighborhood buffer space. Perhaps it is more desirable that the neighbors come over and start dancing, hooting, and hollering like folks did back at the house parties in the day when these pieces were recorded. That could certainly be possible as well, because these tracks have incredible spirit. The music literally jumps up and down. The guitar style of Puckett is wonderful, the notes so fat and provocative its ridiculous. Wimpy bluegrass pickers who philosophize about chromatic runs should go back to these records and listen to the way Puckett played over the chords. The fiddling is beyond belief, McMichen teaming up with his rowdy partner, Lowe Stokes, for glorious passages, voices sometimes chiming in with the fiddle in odd harmony. The version of "You Gotta Quit Kicking My Dawg Around" is a knockout, while other listeners are sure to be fond of "You Gotta Quit Drinkin' Shine." "Rake and Rambling Boy" has a lovely vocal and an elegant tempo. "Mississippi Sawyer" is quite an effective ending track and would have been hard to top. "New Dixie" is a fast-moving anthem and one of several tracks in which someone's falsetto vocal creates an atmosphere that borders on surreal. The recording quality is primitive, but fans of scratchy vinyl will absolutely adore some of the stuff that gets passed along from the original discs these tracks were transferred from. Parts of this stuff sound like the high tide at Carolina Beach, but it all adds to the delicious atmosphere. Liner note information is way on the slim side, a bit of a letdown considering the detail this label has gone to on other occasions. - Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide Read more Less