Interview: Curtis Eller

Northern Sky caught up with allegedly the only yodeling banjo player in New York backstage at the Beverley and East Riding Folk Festival to discuss Buster Keaton, Barak Obama and the right way to pronounce Joe Louis. Half way through the interview, the rain stopped play and two grown men ran to the sanctuary of the concert marquee..  

AW: I'm here now with banjo player, yodeler and song writer Curtis Eller how are you doing?

CE: I'm alright, hi

AW: First time in Beverley?

CE: It is yeah, my first time here and I'm very excited about it there's a lot of great people

AW: Your act is hard to describe, you've appeared in numerous unusual venues including funerals, horse races, vaudeville and burlesque revues and also you've shared stages with contortionists, strippers, glass eaters and even folk singers funnily enough

CE: (Laughs)

AW: How would you describe what you do?

CE: Well I mean it is hard to describe but easy to understand, it's just that old show business thing, it's like a song and dance routine more or less. But I think so many modern performers have gotten a bit lazy with their presentation

AW: Right

CE: Nobody knows how to dance like Al Jolson anymore

AW: Well that's true

CE: (Laughs)

AW: Well you come from that kind of background, didn't your father run a circus in Detroit?

CE: Yeah, it's not as though we were circus folk or anything like that. He was a physical education teacher by trade, but he taught all of his students to juggle and ride unicycles and do tightrope and some of them got quite good at it so he started a local circus in the Detroit area and they would do a few shows a year. So I grew up learning to juggle and do trapeze and things like that

AW: So you got used to those kinds of environments after a while

CE: Yeah, an early education in physical performance I guess

AW: Well your song writing draws on many historical people and events but it's got a very contemporary feel are you conscious of that when you write your songs?

CE: Yeah, people think it's a lot more traditional than it is because I play the banjo but they're really pop songs or rock and roll songs, so they're quite modern structures but I like to use historical figures and events as a way to conjure up an image sort of like how a psychedelic artist would, you know the same way that John Lennon would say 'they're kicking Edgar Allen Poe'

AW: I must be one of the very few English guys who has made a pilgrimage to Piqua in Kansas to visit the very spot where Buster Keaton was born. The house has now gone, it's just a gas station..

CE: (Laughs)

AW: You've written a very moving song about the comic genius and many other historical American figures, is it important to tell these stories?

CE: Well yeah I think so. You know there's this idea of the 'ugly American' as they say, because of the politicians that you get to see and the rotten TV and so forth, I know it sounds pretentious, but it's kind of a mission of mine to describe what it's like to be a good American. I try to think of America and American figures as sort of, we come from this strange country that nobody's heard of and describe it to others in a way that it all makes sense.. does that make sense?

AW: It does make sense and particularly with all those people you've chosen to write about, Stephen Foster, Amelia Earhart, John Wilkes Booth, Joe Louis..

CE: Joe Louis, it's Joe LouiS (pronounces the S), I always say this to English people

AW: So are you planning any songs about Barack Obama?

CE: (Laughs) Not yet, we'll have to see how things work out. I've sort of stopped singing one of the John Wilkes Booth songs 'cause I'm quite happy with Obama at the moment and I don't wanna like.. give anybody ideas. That was more useful a couple of years ago

AW: (Laughs) Well I'm looking forward to seeing you perform today, have you played a set yet at the festival or is this your first one?

CE: This will be my first one yeah

AW: And it will be part of the Americana Party?

CE: Yeah, it's the Americana Party

AW: Well it's been great talking to you Curtis, enjoy the concert and enjoy the rest of your time at the festival

CE: Oh thank you


Wirewalkers and Assassins by Curtis Eller's American Circus is available from his website:

www.curtiseller.com