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MMD > Archives > August 1999 > 1999.08.04 > 06Prev  Next


Gay '90s Village "Nickel Music" Recordings
By Rick Inzero

Ed Copeland wrote that he would like to get the listing of what instru-
ments are playing what songs.  It so happens that I just got a record
at an estate sale titled "Nickel Music -- The Sound of the Nickelodeons
at Paul Eakins' Gay Nineties Village", which was in Sikeston, Missouri.

The only slight problem is, it's AFSD 5960 (copyright 1962), not 5985.
I'll share what info I have on the jacket as it probably applies to
your LP as well.  Here's the song list (so you can tell if it's the
same record that you have):

Side 1:
1. King Cotton
2. Dixie
3. Patriotic Medley
4. Georgia Camp Meeting
5. Hands Across the Sea
6. The Jolly Coppersmith
7. The Irish Washerwoman

Side 2:
1. Battle Hymn of the Republic
2. My Wild Irish Rose
3. March Medley
4. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
5. Yankee Doodle & Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay
6. Over the Waves

Unfortunately, it _never_ says exactly which instruments are used on
which songs.  There's five color photos of various instruments on the
cover, one is the Coinola, the other's I can't say: one has brass
trumpets, one looks to be an orchestrion.  But there is some general
info there on the instruments that were recorded:

 - Several nickelodeons which were manufactured in San Francisco,
pre-1906.  Some were manufactured in Chicago.

 - Encore Banjo, patented in 1893, capable of playing 44 notes.
Pneumatic picks can operate at up to 10 picks per second.  46-hole
trackerbar.

 - Wurlitzer Fascinator, an orchestra piano w/mandolin attachment,
38 violin pipes, 38 flute pipes, orchestra bells, bass and snare drums,
and triangle.

 - Coinola Orchestrion, has solo flute pipes, xylophones, snare and
bass drums, tympani, cymbal, Indian block, triangle, castanets and
tambourine.

 - The Eakins Special, assembled by Paul himself from 4 different
machines.  Consists of 49 flute pipes of 8 foot tone, 37 quintadena
metal pipes (8 foot tone), 12 diapason pipes (8 foot tone), seven-and-
a-third octaves of piano, a 61-note organ manual, and the same
percussion instruments as in the orchestrion above.

 - The Red KT Special, a piano nickelodeon with mandolin plus
xylophone and percussion similar to the Eakins Special and the
orchestrion.

 - The Memory Lane Special, has the same features as the Red KT
Special

Hope this helps a bit.

Rick Inzero
Rochester, NY


(Message sent Wed 4 Aug 1999, 17:03:20 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  90s, Gay, Music, Nickel, Recordings, Village

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