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Rattlebrained

washboards, rhythm bones, drumming & the blues...

Organic Jug Sep 2017

20 May 2018
article by Rattlebrained
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Organic Jug

Regular readers may remember “Messin’ Round”, the band that got me into washboard playing some 12 years ago; which after a few changes became the “Crawfish Blues Band”. Well I’m thrilled to be able to write that we, Dave – Bill and myself, are at it again!

This new trio has been named “Organic Jug”.

The name inspired me to write a little poem of sorts:

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Modified to place the cymbal higher up, which is not something I would do now..

21 January 2018
article by Rattlebrained
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Upright cymbal on your washboard?

Recently I was asked how to attach a cymbal upright rather than flat/parallel to the board, like on one of the pictures I have on the Pictures of all my washboards page.

The pictures date from a few years ago and my washboard is no longer set up like that since it ended up being too heavy to be comfortable. But if you want to give it a try it’s not that hard I use a the Gibraltar SC-CSA Cymbal Stacker. This device is made to attach to a 8mm cymbal stand top so a metric 8mm threaded rod sticking out of your washboard is what you will need to attach it.

The Cymbal Stacker is made to hold two cymbals..

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16 November 2017
article by Rattlebrained
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November

Sunflowers drop on a coffin of oak
A mound of dirt, a colorful cloak
Are you there somewhere?
Sing to you, talk to myself

Rearranging the flowers, late afternoon sun
Wish it would bring some warmth
Not the words left unsaid
But the discussions no longer

No benches nearby, no place to sit and draw
Swiss bureaucracy at work?

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16 June 2017
article by Rattlebrained
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Rag Mama

Some more footage from Floyd Beaumont and the Arcadelphians with yours truly on the washboard.

Part of this was filmed between sets without really considering what I was going to do with it. Always a mistake, but that’s the way it goes…

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My Swiss Bones

18 May 2017
article by Rattlebrained
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Swiss Bones

About 3 years ago, wanting to make my own rhythm bones from scratch I got a few rib bones from a local butcher. I don’t have a garden so I left them on a southern facing window sill – 3 stories up – for about a year since it wasn’t clear I could stink up the place by putting them to macerate in some water. But with time it seemed obvious that just drying in the sun wasn’t going to get the grease out even with the help of a bugs.

So I covered them with water in a bucket in my workshop, put something on top of the bucket and forgot them. I wasn’t in my workshop very often at the time so maybe 4 months went by before I thought to check them out. I uncovered the bucket and found a horrible black swill which I flushed down the toilet as fast as I could… Yuck!

The bones had turned green, stunk, and still seemed pretty greasy.

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