R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders

R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders
Origin	U.S.A.
Genres	String band Old-timey revival Ragtime Western swing Country blues Hot jazz
Years active	1970s–present
Labels	Blue Goose, Shanachie Records
Associated acts	Robert Crumb, Bob Brozman
Members
Robert Armstrong, Al Dodge, Terry Zwigoff, Bob Brozman, Tony Marcus
Past members
Robert Crumb

R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders are an American retro string band playing songs from, and in the style of, the 1920s: old-time music, ragtime, Western swing, country blues, hot jazz "evergreen" standards, hokum, vodeville and medicine show tunes. Their three 33⅓ rpm albums, all recorded in the 1970s on the Blue Goose label, were titled R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders (1974), R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 2 (1976), and R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 3 (1978); the latter two have been reissued on the Shanachie label as Chasin' Rainbows (No. 2) and Singing In the Bathtub (No. 3).

As a novelty, they issued a number of 78 rpm 12-inch singles for Blue Goose, long after the format was obsolete. The most familiar is probably R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders' Party Record (1980), with the double-entendre "My Girl's Pussy" on the "A" side and "Christopher Columbus" on the "B" side.

Robert Crumb was the band's frontman and album cover artist. As of 2006 he was no longer much involved with the group; the band at that time included Robert Armstrong (vocals, saw, guitar), Bob Brozman (vocals, various steel instruments, guitar, ukulele), Al (Allan) Dodge (vocals, mandolin), Terry Zwigoff (saw, cello, Stroh fiddle, and mandolin), and Tony Marcus (vocals, guitar, and fiddle).

External links

• R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders (Overview of activities)
• Robert Armstrong homepage
• Bob Brozman homepage
• Robert Crumb homepage
• Al Dodge homepage
• Tony Marcus homepage
• Blue Goose Records discography
• Re-releases on Shanachie Records
• Re-releases on Air Mail Recordings