Moussu T e lei Jovents/Curtis Eller

Event information

The ever rising profile of Sheffield venue, The Shakespeare, gets another boost on Sunday, October 19th with a double headlined show featuring Marseille's finest in the shape of Moussu T e lei Jovents, coupled with New York's angriest yodelling banjo player (and great Sheffield favourite) Curtis Eller. Moussu T e lei Jovents consists of the founder of Massilia Sound System together with its guitarist and a famous Brazilian percussionist. As warming as a shot of Pernod, their music draws on the music of the heady days of the 1930's when Marseille was a melting pot of influences from the desert blues of Africa to the slinky rhythms returning with trade from the Carribean and Brazil. Irreverent and relaxed on stage the band draw the audience in with hypnotic tunes that simply reel you in like the best of JJ Cale but with a Mediterranean flavour. A must see! Curtis Eller is without question New York's angriest yodelling banjo player.He sings about pigeon racing, performing elephants and Jesus, all of which he has seen with his own eyes. He started his show-business career at the age of seven as a juggler and acrobat in the Hiller Olde Tyme Circus in Detroit, but has since turned to the banjo because that's where the money is. His biggest musical influences are Buster Keaton, Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Eller and his band The American Circus has appeared at funerals, horse races, burlesque revues and punk rock dumps. Haunted by the ghosts of silent film and wearing a dead man's clothes, Mr. Eller and the band have staggered their way into the hearts of audiences from London and Amsterdam to Los Angeles and Montreal.
Along the way, they have shared the stage with strippers, contortionists, glass eaters and folksingers. They play more waltzes than any other band I know of, but nobody ever seems to feel like dancing.
On the lastest American Circus CD "Wirewakers & Assassins" Mr. Eller presents songs about John Wilkes Booth, Joe Louis, Fidel Castro, Jack Ruby and Richard Nixon (as well as the usual tales of Civil War generals and Elvis Presley). As always, sporadic yodeling and some strong language should be expected.