If you’re looking for quality big band music, The California Ramblers got it in their bag. Less adventurous than the Washboard Rhythm Kings, these guys stick with the nuts and bolts construction of songs. Often the music gives off some long-lost jalopy music, particularly in the antiques of “Charleston” and the memorable “Miss Annabelle Lee”.
But part of the problem with a lot of big band music is how it exists in time as a curio rather than something whose value appreciates in time. Some artists are able to see their fortune and respect increase with the passage of time, like the aforementioned Washboard Rhythm Kings or Sippie Wallace. Others, like the California Ramblers, saw themselves fit specifically into a particular period of time.
Don’t worry, though. If you’re a fan of big band music, this might help meet your fix. But even as a fan of this type of sound, a song like “Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie” sounds particularly weak. Lacking any sort of hook and mixed in with overly cutesy lyrics, it sort of fails.
The instrumentals work far better than any of the vocal material. Vocally, they couldn’t sing to save their lives. Stick with the instrumentals and you’ll be able to appreciate what they do.