Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. The Spasm - Daddy Stovepipe & Mississippi Sarah
2. Tanner's Boarding House - Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett
3. Don't Think I'm Santa Claus - Lil McClintock
4. Hokum Blues - Dallas String Band with Coley Jones
5. Jimbo Jambo Land - Shorty Godwin
6. Gonna Swing On The Golden Gate - Fiddlin' John Carson & His Virginia Reelers
7. Papa's 'Bout To Get Mad - Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley
8. The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man - Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright
9. Bye, Bye, Policeman - Jim Jackson
10. The Bald-Headed End Of A Broom - Walter Smith
11. Bow Wow Blues - Allen Brothers
12. Beans - Beans Hambone & El Morrow
13. A Chicken Can Waltz The Gravy Around - Stovepipe # 1 and David Crockett
14. Tell It To Me - Grant Brothers & Their Music
15. Ain't No Use Working So Hard - Carolina Tar Heels
16. Mama Keep Your Yes Ma'am Clean - Walter Cole
17. C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken - Kirk McGee & Blythe Poteet
18. My Money Never Runs Out - Banjo Joe
19. Railroadin' Some - Henry Thomas "Ragtime Texas"
20. Traveling Man - Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers
21. G. Burns Is Gonna Rise Again - Johnson-Nelson-Porkchop
22. Baby All Night Long - Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers
23. Born In Hard Luck - Chris Bouchillon
24. He's In The Jailhouse Now - Memphis Sheiks

Disc 2:

1. Gonna Tip Out Tonight - Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley
2. Chevrolet Car - Sam McGee
3. It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' - Gid Tanner & His Skillet-Lickers
4. Bring It With You When You Come - Cannon's Jug Stompers
5. Atlanta Strut - Blind Sammie
6. Go Along Mule - Uncle Dave Macon & His Fruit Jar Drinkers
7. Casey Bill - Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band
8. I Got Mine - Frank Stokes
9. Hannah - Chris Bouchillon
10. Adam & Eve In The Garden - Bogus Ben Covington
11. Mysterious Coon - Alec Johnson & His Band
12. Her Name Was Hula Lou - Carolina Tar Heels
13. Reno Blues - Three Tobacco Tags
14. Scoodle Um Skoo - Papa Charlie Jackson
15. Stackalee - Frank Hutchison
16. The Cat's Got The Measles, The Dog's Got The Whooping Cough - Walter Smith
17. Shout You Cats - Hezekiah Jenkins
18. Nobody's Business If I Do - Tommie Bradley
19. Sweet Sixteen - Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers
20. Ticklish Reuben - Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright
21. I Heard The Voice Of A Porkchop - Jim Jackson
22. Shine - Dallas String Band with Coley Jones
23. The Gypsy - Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers
24. Kiss Me Cindy - J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17156 in Music
• Released on: 2005-10-04
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .42 pounds

Album Description
Earning Their White Stripes. "But what I'm listening to most of the time at present is an album called Good For What Ails You, which is an album of songs that people used to listen to at medicine shows all over the States. It's quite an interesting album and I think that people would be well advised to pick it up." Jack White - Sunday Mail (Australia) Dec 18, 2005

Five Stars. Groundbreaking. "Fans of Nick Tosches' Where Dead Voices Gather will lap up this extraordinary snapshot of an America that is still shrouded in shadow. Good For What Ails You supplants the Harry Smith collections by surveying the people's music of the day, some of which sounds like nothing you have heard before." Jon Savage - MOJO Dec 2005

Before motion pictures, before radio, before television, the traveling Medicine Shows brought entertainment to America! Flamboyant pitch doctors roamed the land, hawking their tonics, elixirs, and miracle cures, and with them came a host of singers, dancers, comedians, banjo pickers, blues shouters, jug blowers, string ticklers, and minstrel men. The shows died out by mid-20th century, but not before a handful of seasoned veterans left their musical legacy on phonograph records. Here are classic performances by such colorful names as Pink Anderson, Daddy Stovepipe, Gid Tanner, Blind Sammie, Bogus Ben Covington, Fiddlin' John Carson, Banjo Joe, Shorty Godwin, Beans Hambone, Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers, the Three Tobacco Tags, and many more!

Two-CD Set / 48 Songs Digitally Remastered / Over 2 Hours of Music / Six-Panel Digipak with 72-page Full Color Booklet

A Profusely Illustrated History of the Medicine Shows, many Rare Photographs and Firsthand Accounts never before published, plus full discography and song descriptions.

Top 10 Reissue of the Year - MOJO Jan 2006
Rare tracks from the heyday of the snake oil vendors. Weird folk and blackface balladry for Harry Smith Anthology addict.

Michaelangelo Matos - City Pages/Seattle Weekly Nov 30, 2005
As academia continues to pry open American show business' minstrel past, Ails is a fascinating illustration of its musical appeal.

Customer Reviews

The Best Reissue Project...ever
Of all the Old Hat projects that I have picked up, this is definately the best. I would even go as far as saying that this is a "high water mark" for reissues of pre-war music. This ranks as high as the Harry Smith Anthology and the Charlie Patton set but better in a few ways. First, the sound quality on this set is unbelievably great. Most of the recordings are warm and deep but also very sharp and clear. I don't know if there is any new technology that improves these old records but this set blows away most other collections in terms of sound. Second, the notes are extensive, articulate & put forth some very complex notions about pre-19th century (and early 20th century) medicine shows, their function in socieity, and how they preserved and changed popular music forms in America. Finally, the actual set itself is a beautiful presentation. The long booklet contains several dozen images & photos, most of which I've never seen before. It seems that this is a work of deep love & respect for the material. I could go on & on about the set but I should just say that if early blues, country and jug bands are your thing, you should have this set.

Instant Joy
I must own 40 collections of old timey music and this is the most consistantly delightful and the best annotated of the lot. 48 numbers and each one brings a smile. Each one teaches you just a bit about what Greil Marcus has called "The Old Weird America".
Sure, there's a time for appreciating the hardships of the early 20th century, but how much fun is it to hear the light side that must have helped keep people sane and hopeful. Hooray for Old Hat!

I've been waiting for this for years!
I've been eagerly awaiting a good compilation album of Medicine Show acts for years, and finally, Old Hat has done it... and boy have they done it! In the tradition of Old Hat compilations, this is packed full of top-quality cuts, some readily available elsewhere, but mostly completely obscure.

The liner notes alone, as with other Old Hat collections, are worth the price of the album. Well-written, highly informative and easy to read... unlike some of the overly scholarly but poorly edited notes in many re-releases, full of great pictures, just wonderful. They make a point of showing the racial issues behind medicine shows, without villainizing or condoning the wonderful musicians but highly misguided racial attitudes of the times.

If you have any folk or jazz connoiseurs in the family, this album will make a wonderful gift, and pick one up for yourself while you're at it.