The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show - Prater's Creek Gazette

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Arts and Music

The Prater's Creek Gazette

14th Issue Summer 2007 Page #8

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cello

books

Local Band Celebrates 20 Years Of Pickin’ and Grinnin’ (Continued)

early drovers Photo

They started playing these “moonshine parties”. The first one they played, Homer was so drunk he'd pass out during a song with his head in a hay bale. When it'd come time for his solo, Grandpa would yell "Take it Homer!" and he'd come to, play his solo, and pass back out into the hay bale. One year, Grandpa got to the party too early and by the time they played all he could do was roll around on the ground in front of the band. So they played "Mama Don't Allow 'no rolling around on the ground'". This is all on video, should go up on YouTube. Good times. Good 'shine!

At first, the band always sat down in chairs to perform because they wanted a "front porch" feel to their shows. Then fiddler Kelly Smith played a show with the band and Ed said, "Ain't no way we're sittin' down with a fiddle player. We gotta move to the bow!” They never sat down again.

Ed started out as "Merle" not because of Merle Haggard, whose songs we were doing a lot, but because of a Replacements' song. He had the idea for doing the medicine show, and did not know any band existed with "Medicine Show" in their name, except Dr. Hook. And he did not know that Doc Tommy Scott was still doing his act. Ed couldn't get anybody to play the role of “Grandpa”, the doctor of the medicine show. So on July 4th, 1988, at Tiger Town Tavern, “Merle” played the first two sets and never returned. “Grandpa” appeared for the third set, complete with white hair (courtesy of two cans of stage makeup paint) and wearing a suit. So Doc Trundell, a.k.a. Grandpa, was literally born on the Fourth of July.

They started getting some real good opening slots where they just killed. They landed the opening slot for the Georgia Satellites at Freedom Weekend aloft in front of 40,000 people. But when they opened for New Grass Revival, their one electronic tuner broke and they band drunkenly tuned to “Grandpa’s” harmonica. Afterwards, the Newgrass soundman said "You have a real good act, but you need to be in tune with each other!" "Uh, thanks" “Grandpa” replied.

Late '89, they heard about this band from Chicago that called themselves "The Drovers" and that they had beat them to trademarking the name. So "Old Time Medicine Show" was officially added to their name.
The band started touring up to NYC and back, and on one tour they were on their way to play a place called "Hillbilly Heaven" in Virginia, and spotted a roadside vendor who sold American and Confederate flags with people's faces such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Jr., and John Wayne, on them. They laughed their heads off and when they got to the honky tonk it also sold those flags. “Clovis”, a huge John Wayne fan (he did name them The Drovers) bought one and from that was born an every gig ritual for years: taking off their hats and turning towards the flag and "Salutin' the Duke".

One afternoon there was a knock on Ed's door. The door opened and with sun the way it shined, he could not tell who was at the door. He just saw the outline of a man standing there with an upright bass. It was Rob Keller who had bought the bass and wanted to become a Drover again. He knew the band needed a bass player. He had since became a lover of old time country and bluegrass music and was wanting to pick. It was a world of difference from his first stint in the band and he became one of the best bluegrass players of all time.

Up until 1990, bluegrass was only a third of the band’s material. The other 2/3 was hardcore country and cowboy music. “Grandpa” got an accordion and “Luke” would play guitar and the band would do whole sets of cowboy music, and “Grandpa” even recited cowboy poetry. The stage always had four hay bales, a noose hanging from the ceiling, a seven-foot Marlboro Man poster, longhorn steer skulls, etc. Fans who didn’t know the band was playing in town often would see a trail of straw from the hay bales and just follow it to the gig. They lost a couple of potentially lucrative gigs when the owners of a certain club said he’d only hire them if they didn’t bring the hay. “No hay no play” he was told.

They kept touring up north and such and on one lousy ripped off trip to Pittsburgh in September 1991, their van hit a deer as they were leaving on Sunday. “Luke”, no “Luke” was cool… Mark, a "I hate people but I love every other creature" kind of guy, freaked. The deer jumped out of a field on that Sunday morning and they caught it with the windshield of the van. Mark blamed the band for killing the poor animal and never played another note with the band. A month later, the band was playing the Carl Story Bluegrass Festival in Pumpkintown, SC and a bald headed fellow walked over and saw that they needed a banjo. They’d never heard the three-finger style on their songs, since Mark had played a (kinda) clawhammer style. The guy said his name was "Carl", and they got his number. (Continued on the next page)

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