He's the one on the right. Only two recordings are known to exist of this
bluesman... More recordings may exist but as of yet are undiscovered...
He had been known only as HEY YOU in childhood. He was raised in a split
level modular home with tasteful landscaping not far from the Wappingers
Creek. He developed a peculiar obsession with mint apple jelly sandwiches
on Canadian oat bread...His friends and family began calling him Mint Apple
Jelly when he was about 14. All of Mint Apple's songs were happy... Too
happy to be considered the blues. His solo career lasted less than a week... It's rumoured that
Mint hooked up with another erstwhile bluesman known as "Smoked Neck
Bones" and they performed in an unknown number of vaudeville shows
as "Jelly & Bones".
THESE ARE THE ONLY KNOWN MINT APPLE JELLY RECORDINGS....DOWNLOAD EM!
note: recording quality is the best we could get from the original 78 rpm dictation discs
SONG TITLE:
.mov
.wav
mp3
"Happy Blues"
hb.mov (495k)
hb.wav(493k)
"Really Happy Blues"
rhb.mov (477k)
rhb.wav(474k)
Professor deCampo, our researcher and archivist at
Planet Andy's Longwood Towers Institute has discovered what appears to
be the rumored 'memoirs' of Mint Apple Jelly. What follows is a
preliminary translation from the smudged, pencil covered manuscript...Mint Apple Jelly first felt the pull of the blues when he arrived at school prepared to take the Iowa Tests with a #3 pencil instead of a #2. Because the test-reading machine was unable to read many of his answers, his score was abysmally low and he was relegated to a "special" classroom. There he received intensive 'musical therapy' that so traumatized him that for years afterwards, the second movement of Beethoven's Third Symphony would cause him to involuntarily shout out the letters of the alphabet backwards.The following year, during a 'routine audit' of student placements, Mint Apple Jelly was 'rescued' from the now controversial 'music therapy' program and returned to the general student population. But the effects of that academic year would continue to shape his music and performance style."Really Happy Blues" (re-written as "Happy Blues" at the request of his first manager, Roy 'Moonshine' Driver) is a reworking of the morning greeting Mint Apple Jelly suffered through during his "Iowa Test" period. Once Mint Apple Jelly was put back in the general student population, he put his'alternative year' experience to good use and increased his academic standing. However, the musical experiences pulled him towards a more dangerous group of students and outcasts. Soon he was skipping afternoon classes to play 'jazz' under the arch of Wappingers Bridge with a group of embittered cutters from the closed down blue-jean factory. Although they gelled musically, Mint Apple Jelly's constant happy outlook caused tension within the group and he was soon cast out. The experience convinced him that his only future lay in a solo career. However, his presence among the blue-jean workers did have an effect, and a year after he left the group, they recorded the ultra-rare "Ballad of Mint Apple Jelly" under the name "The Sweet-Orrs".
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