July 13, 2003
American Music Quiz

With one question each from jazz, blues, bluegrass, and country (not necessarily in that order), this tests not only the depth but the breadth of your knowledge of American non-classical music. There is no prize because some answers can be found via Google. Please don't do that. Answers may be placed in the comments.

  1. What was Uncle Pen's full name? (This is a giveaway to many.)
  2. What do you do when the crawdad hole goes dry?
  3. What article of apparel goes best with a pair of walkin' shoes?
  4. What pair of musicians have color-coordinated first names? (They may or may not be brothers.)

Update 1: (4:50 PM)
Since 'Sporkadelic' has answered #4 (see first comment), here's three more bonus questions, one of them classical:

  1. What jazzman's name or nickname is also a dreaded disease? I am not referring to 'Bleedings Gums' Murphy on The Simpsons, but a real jazzman.
  2. Why is the "Green Mountain Monteverdi Festival" the best ever name for a music festival, and why should it move a few miles north from Massachusetts (apparently) into Vermont?
  3. Why would a woman who can't figure out that her boyfriend is a loser be appropriately compared to Cleopatra? Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were no losers. Well, Antony lost in the end, but you see what I mean.

Update 2: (7/16 00:26 AM)
Questions 4-7 have all been answered (press 'more' to see them), but 1-3 are still open. Come on, they're not that hard.

Answers so far:

  1. Jazzmen Blue Mitchell and Red Mitchell, who are not brothers (Sporkadelic).
  2. Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (Whaq).
  3. Because Monteverdi, Vermont, and Green Mountain are synonyms in Italian, French, and English, respectively (Michell Dulak).
  4. A few years ago Pam Tillis had a hit country song about a woman whose boyfriend swore he loved her but couldn't afford a wedding ring, but then bought a brand-new pickup truck, and so on. The punch-line (quoted from memory) was "They call me Cleopatra, 'cause I'm the Queen of Denial" (rvman). By the way, a Professor of Popular Culture could write a long and not-necessarily-boring paper about the intrusion of pop psychology into country music. (Also bluegrass: in a recent album, Del McCoury sings about being a "recovering Pharisee" -- a nice combination of pop-psych and Biblical tradition.)
Posted by Dr. Weevil at July 13, 2003 12:05 AM