Tune in Saturday, December 6th, at noon on 88.1 WVPE for the Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour, Episode 94, featuring music by The Matchsellers.
The Matchseller’s Andrew Morris declares, “I will always wear pants on stage.”
Everyone knows the Matchsellers always put on a great show at Wild Rose Moon Performing Arts Center while performing and recording the Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour, and this program continues to illustrate that point. Andrew Morris brings his loony quips A-Game to the project, while Julie Bates lets her droll, deadpan one-liner observations roll lugubriously off her tongue like she’s giving bad news at a mortician's convention.
The show begins after some patter between announcer Derek Jensen and host George Schricker, followed by a brief note from Rosie who quotes Sigmund Freud in a small attempt to tip the show’s cap to the Matchseller’s newest album, Psychobiography – a title that could only be wrought from the Matchseller’s wonderfully twisted minds.
As the back-and-forth unfolds, Andrew recounts playing with Billy Strings in 2017, when he apparently decided to wear shorts on stage, allowing the aftermath photographs to give him new insight into a performer’s raison d’être for wearing pants. And, swiveling from the ridiculous to the divine, he follows such discourse by marching through the 1950s modeled tune “I Can’t Believe We’re Still in Love.”
You are the jackpot of my life;
With you around, all the numbers are… just right.
Well, Noah saw a rainbow,
Up in the sky above,
Maybe miracles still happen,
I can’t believe we’re still in love.
The Matchsellers' next song tips its hat to the Moon and relates the story of two people separated by distance, yet united by “The Same Moon.”During the song, both Andrew and Julie deliver beautifully voiced solos on their instruments that blend with the song's intent like caramel on a cinnamon bun. At the end of the song, host George Schricker goads Andrew and Julie into a chorus reboot with the audience singing along: “Everybody sees the same moon, everybody sees the same moon.”
After the break, the show returns with Gail and Paul Tyler, both veterans of Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, Gail as an administrator and Paul as a teacher. Newly settled residents of Miller Beach, Indiana, they unveil themselves as collectors of old western songs–including the one they perform, which they explain first came to print in the 1880s and was recorded in the 1930s in a recording for the WLS Barn Dance. The song is titled “Bucking Bronco,” and both Gail and Paul suggest it might have a seductive meaning. And the yodeling they provide only adds to that story.
The next time I saw him ’twas late in the fall
a swinging the girls at Tomlinson’s ball.
He gave me some presents, among them a ring,
The return that I gave him was a far better thing.
A young maiden’s heart, I’d have you all know,
that he won it by riding his bucking bronco.
The “Shoot the Moon” game show follows with two “remineralized” guests, Jason Rich(Huntington, Indiana) and David Harling (a Maryland Native), pitting their cunning and wit against each other while relating to four absurd trivia subjects such as: Sawing Saws, Sawing, in Warsaw – Names, Naming Names, Naming – Sassy Kansas, Sassified – Psyched Psychobiography. During the show, Andrew Morris takes a front seat with his numerous guitar clues cleverly voiced to provide musical hints for the good natured contestants.
In the next segment of the show, Julie Bates tells the story of writing her song, “For a Long Lost Friend.” “I went on a hike and I got lost and I was hiking for a couple hours and I didn’t know where I was and I just started writing a song to pass the time.” With a straight-up country classic sound, the song almost immediately tells the story.
Well, our time together was much too short,
But we sure lived it up,
We tapped that keg of friendship,
And let it fill our cups,
We didn’t have a proper goodbye,
Never dreamin’ it would be the end.
But I’m so glad to call you my friend.
After the tune, Andrew Bates discusses his love of Loretta Lynn’s work, “She has a way of expressing true, raw feelings, things that you can’t help but understand what she’s talking about.” Turning the subject to goofiness, the host asks an Andrew Morris-supplied question:
“I wish you could be a little goofier.”Andrew obligingly replies, “I will give you some of that classic, vintage, Matchsellers goofyness, right now.”At that, both begin the song, Victory Bound, Julie on her fiddle and Andrew playing his body, mouth, knees,shoulders, head, and hands until the room erupted in mighty affirmation of such musical enthusiasm.
I tell you boys I’m victory bound,
I tell you boys I’m victory bound,
No cold shackles can keep me down,
I tell you boys, I’m victory bound.
And just like that, the Matchsellers had lit fire to the Moon one more time!And we’re still shining from their gracious gift of heartfelt music.
Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour, Episode 94, featuring music by The Matchsellers - Saturday, December 6th, at noon on 88.1 WVPE
The Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour is recorded live before a studio audience in historic downtown, Plymouth, Indiana. The show is hosted by George Schricker and features musical performances, interviews, a game show and more. For more information visit: wildrosemoon.com