Washboard Hank and Lance Loree plus Hank’s wife Sweet Mountain Muriel will turn any frown upside down, even on the coldest night as they did for an intimate audience of about 10 people , which eventually swelled to about 20 at the Slice, Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Washboard Hank, aka Hank Fisher, who used to tour with Fred Eaglesmith among others sure knows how to entertain. And while Washboard Hank has been around for a lot longer than the ever so popular Hank and Lily who are based out of Victoria, Washboard Hank, Lance Loree and Sweet Muriel sounded like Hank and Lily might sound if they were raised on a farm rather than in a city.
He cracked off colour jokes and and guffaw inducing songs right from the beginning “soundcheck song.”
But in addition to playing “stupid songs,” the duo — trio when Washboard Hank’s wife Sweet Mountain Muriel joined them on the stage, they proved themselves to be no slouches as musicians as well.
Lance Loree mugged for the audience while knocking off hot rockabilly, country and even a couple jazzy licks on the guitar. He played dobro on a couple of other songs and even tried his hand at the Slice’s out of tune piano.
Washboard hank, slowly added more paraphernalia with each song, beginning with a guitar, switching to banjo, then adding several home made instruments including a custom kazoo and his ‘fallopian tuba’, a tuba he made out of PVC pipe and the kitchen sink. He joked they left it outside in Nanton the night before and found a guy with his tongue stuck to it.
“The secret is to be calm and breathe on your tongue,” he advised.
He put on a hard hat featuring various bells , whistles and a tin plate for extra percussion.
And of course he added his famed washboard— an actual washboard with a license plate and more bells, whistles and rubber horns than your average circus, and played some impressive rhythms on it. He introduced it by singing a song about the washboard called ‘Washboard Boogie.’
They began their show slowly before getting into the hilarious stuff beginning with ‘Elvis is Dead and living Down in Tweed,” which Washboard Hank prefaced with some jokes about Elvis being alive and opening a gas station.
Sweet Muriel joined them on stage, adding her adorable squeaky twang and to play some mandolin while singing some old country/ blues songs and help Hank sing a John Prine song. She sounded like she stepped right out of the 1940s.
It was back to the funny stuff with a request for Polyester Polly and a Celtic tinged tune ‘Ferd and Lizer.’
He sang another humorous song about Sweet Muriel‘s wedding called ‘Who Spit Tobacco on Sweet Muriel's Wedding Gown.’
They ended the first set with a couple of political songs including ‘Stupid Is as Stupid Does,’ about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and ‘Hooray for Stephen Harper,’ a tongue in cheek stab at the prime minister.
The second set started in a rootsy/ country vein with a really pretty song ‘Nothing lasts Forever.’
The played another request as Hank laughed “We love requests, especially when they are our songs.”
Sweet Muriel joined them on stage for a racy version of ‘Friendly Little Cat,’ which had the audience howling with laughter as Lance Loree made his guitar meow in several different keys.
They played another hilarious song, this time about farm accidents. They stayed in the farm humour with another humourous song about pigs, as Hank snorted into the microphone.
