Cheap Suit Serenaders Views

• Music

R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders are a string band playing songs from, and in the style of, the 1920s. As a novelty, they issued a number of recordings on 78 rpm discs in the 1970s, long after the format was obsolete. Their three standard 33⅓ rpm albums, all recorded in the 1970s on the Blue Goose label, were titled R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders (1974), R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 2 (1976), and R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 3 (1978); the latter two have been reissued on the Shanachie label as Chasin' Rainbows (No. 2) and Singing In the Bathtub (No. 3).

G"R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders " are a loosely organized string band playing songs from the 1920s and (occasionally) modern songs styled after the songs of the 20s. I know of three albums (all recorded in the mid-seventies), and one 78 RPM single. The LPs are simply titled (R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders, R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders #2, and R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders #3). The covers have R. Crumb artwork, of course. All three are on Blue Goose, a minor folk label that seems to have been swallowed by Shanachie. More recently, two CD reissues with material from the second and third albums have been released by Shanachie. The first album seems to have been ignored so far.

A fan in the Bay Area, Steve Goldfield, sent me the following information about the current status of the Cheap Suit Serenaders: l"R. Crumb isn't an active member and hasn't been for a long time with the exception of three of this year's performances... The current band includes Bob Armstrong (saw, guitar), Bob Brozman (various steel instruments, guitar, ukulele), Al Dodge on mandolin, Terry Zwigoff on saw, cello, Stroh fiddle, and mandolin, and Tony Marcus on guitar and fiddle. Everybody sings except for Terry.s"

Sandberg and Weissman's o"Folk Music Sourcebook " (Alfred A. Knopf, 1976) has a short review of R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders in a section headed e"The String Band Revival.s" They say F"The well-known cartoonist turns out to be a fine tenor banjo player, playing with friends on guitar, mandolin, tuba, accordion, etc. The band re-creates early white string ragtime and vodeodo sounds, with period vocal stylings and some original songs.M"