Recluses Unite
(Dual Plover) CD $13.00 (Out-of-stock)
Spend the evening in the company of a bottle of whisky instead of your sweetheart, and the tune you bellow out in the wee hours -- with arms around a snake oil merchant and a boxing ballerina -- could well be a ditty from the mind of Al Duvall. He crafts wicked vaudevillian hits on banjo, kazoo, and various percussive detritus; his “gentle but deadly” songs draw from working-class music of pre-war America, blending jug-band, medicine show, music-hall, and Victorian parlor ballads. Duvall delivers a loving backhand to the fringe dweller in this expertly crafted collection of aural ephemera. With an overdose of morbid puns and sly innuendo, Recluses Unite is the perfect primer for any aspiring vagrant.
Timid Mischief
(Dual Plover) CD $15.25 (Out-of-stock)
An unguided tour guide down Memory Lane. First stop: turn-of-the-century style American folk played on banjo, kazoo, guitar, musical saw, and a collection of spittoons, frying pans and medicine bottles. Duvall’s vaudevillian songs are steeped in black wit, double entendre and clever wordplay about kleptomaniacs, moonshiners, criminals, loners and even more shadowy figures. Timid Mischief mixes old-timey, ragtime, sea shanty, Victorian parlor and jug band musics recorded on wax cylinders and other lo-fi devices. These songs should have been written between 1900 and 1930; he just never got around to it until now.