Artist Information
Biography
The Red Top Wolverine Show played its first show as a country blues duo in the fall of 2004. The two original members of the band, Shoeless and Bucket, played a mix of songs whose original composers have long been forgotten, with the odd Buck Owens cover or original song thrown in. The group gathered a small following based largely on their use of junkyard percussion instruments – a five gallon plastic bucket, a wooden pallet, an aluminum trash can, and an upside down rubber waste basket – in conjunction with more traditional guitar and harmonica.
Sometime during the next spring two pieces became three when the boys met a sordid character named Frisco and recruited him to play bass. This was no ordinary bass – it was made from a single piece of orange weed whacker line strung between the top of a broomstick and the bottom of a zinc wash tub.
Late in the summer of the next year Shoeless heard some racket coming from the house next door and went over to check it out. He found a drummer and a guitar player – the last remnants of a short lived Salt Lake punk band called Twelve State Killing Spree. Soon Frisco and Shoeless started playing much a harder version of the Wolverine Show’s music with these two – just scratching an itch – with Frisco playing a bonafied four string electric bass.
A decision was made. The drummer, a squeaky little guy named Jailbait, and the guitarist, later called Corn Chip were asked to join the Wolverine Show .
Soon thereafter, Frisco disappeared under mysterious circumstances behind the Chevron on Foothill at I-80, and Corn Chip was forced to switch over to electric bass. Old Man Stanley reluctantly left his post as fan club president to play junkyard percussion full time.
An album was recorded. They called it Sloppy Jalopy.
Instrumentation
Ben Curtis - harmonica; Frisco - washtub bass; Brad McCarley - guitar and vocals; James Heiskell - electric bass; Jason Cowley - drums; John Stanley - junkyard percussion
Discography
Sloppy Jalopy(2006). rev313 records. LP.
Live at Ego's (2006). www.libsyn.com/rtws. podcast.
Several of the songs from Sloppy Jalopy have received airplay on KRCL 90.9 FM in Salt Lake City.
Official Website
Audio
Video
Setlist
Original Songs: Mockingbird, Natchez Trace, Barely Alive, Rest Stop, Colorado, Postage Due, Road of Love, Yellow Rope, I'm Rollin' with You, Mule Driver, Garbage Man
Cover Songs: Goin Down South, Roll and Tumble, Kokomo, Mannish Boy, Long Haired Doney, Po' Black Mattie, Death Letter, Georgia Women, Red Cross Store, You Don't Know, Down in a Hole, Search and Destroy, Heavy Soul, When the Lights Go Out, Cactus, Ring of Fire, Truck Driving Man, Mama Tried, Floyd the Barber
