Roadhouse Razzmatazz Vol.2

'Roadhouse' became a popular term for dance halls located along rural roads and highways across America during World War 1 and the 'teens' and into the 1920's and the 'prohibition' era. For roadhouses and places of public amusement and entertainment the 'nickel-in'the-slot' automatic player piano was a wonderful new and profitable attaction. There's no better example than this Wurlitzer Model CX built in 1914. This particular model could play up to 30 tunes, non-stop-assuming, of course, that the partron had dropped in 30 nickels in the coin slot. It's really an 'automatic orchestra' for which the technical term is 'orchestrion'. It plays bass and snare drums, a cymbal, 38 violin pipes, 38 flute pipes and a 'mandoiln attachment' all in accompaniment to the piano. This recording features a sample of the various styles of music popular in that era-jazz, blues, vaudeville, rags, marches and one and two steps.