Musicbeat

Ragged time

CW & Mr. Spoons

Do chicks dig ragtime? According to CW, guitarist and singer of the duo CW & Mr. Spoons, ragtime has always been about getting the ladies off their feet and dancing. “In the early days, women used to have to take off their corsets to start dancing,” says CW. “It wasn’t always the most respectable music.” CW shows off his guitar, a hefty 1930 National Triolium, with a decal of a young lady in a cowboy hat in a relaxed pose, playing guitar. “This is Wild Wanda,” he says. “My muse.” For 50 years, CW has been following Wild Wanda’s siren song, leading him west. He started playing music at twelve, after receiving some disconcerting news. “My orthodontist told me my teeth were too crooked to play clarinet,” he says. “So I picked up guitar.” In the ’60s, during folk music’s revival in the states, a divide was formed between those who aimed to follow the traditional masters, and those who wanted to burn a new path forward. Singers like Bob Dylan took the form of protest songs and brought it new meaning, while others sought to preserve America’s musical roots. CW fell into the latter category, aiming to recreate the atmosphere of his heroes, including Blind Blake and Blind Willie McTell. He moved west, with the goal of mastering Western ragtime guitar.

The other half of the band is Mr. Spoons, a barrel-chested by man with an easy smile who Kent Irwin plays an eclectic smorgasbord of percussion—a crash cymbal, a bell, a tambourine, a woodblock, two cowbells, a pair of tin cans, two halves of a coconut, all of it arranged on a pipe, anchored at the bottom by a wooden bucket. He calls it “The Contraption.” Before becoming Mr. Spoons, he dabbled in guitar and mandolin. He was a bit stage shy until a guitarist in a friend’s band had suffered a heart attack just before his slot at the Virginia City Bluegrass Festival, and Mr. Spoons was called to fill in at the last minute. He wouldn’t have imagined playing spoons until the rest of the band signed him up for a live jam session in front of the festival crowd. They handed him a pair of spoons and shoved him on stage, where he tried to pick up the instrument as he went along. It came to a point in the song where the frontman started calling out solos. “Guitar!” he called. “Mandolin!” “Fiddle!” Then, “Spoons!” “I started whacking the spoons on my knee, and the crowd went wild,” says Mr. Spoons. Although he provides the percussion for the band, Mr. Spoons doesn’t claim to be a drummer. Listening to the band, it’s clear that he doesn’t play a beat, he plays the song. He knocks on the tin cans, then hits a bell, then blows his whistle. He rarely plays a song the same way twice. The iconic ragtime rhythm is instead provided by CW on guitar, playing with a thumbpick, parlor style. CW & Mr. Spoons play on the upbeat side of the folk spectrum, with a sound that aims to make its listeners get up and move their feet. An accomplished musicologist, with a book out about the music of the Gold Rush, CW identifies ragtime as the father of a long lineage of American dance music, including jazz and eventually, rock and roll. “A lot of different bands try and do ragtime,” says CW. “Bluegrass bands play ragtime at 90 miles an hour, jazz bands play ragtime cool. We’re not cool. We’re hot.” Ω

Photo/Kent Irw In

CW and Mr. Spoons at the Roasting House in Virginia City.

For more information, visit www.reverb nation.com/ cwandmrspoons.