Vaudeville Cowboy

On Vaudeville Cowboy, the adorable and rather widely known yodeling, accordion-playing cowboy from Paradise pays tribute to Jimmie Rodgers, Tom Mix, Buffalo Bill Cody, Will Rogers, Tim McCoy and “the scores of other now forgotten cowboy entertainers who graced the vaudeville and tent show stages of America in the first half of the 20th century.” A number of the tunes are Rodgers’. His “Gambling Polka Dot Blues” opens this infectious collection of quirky, old-school sweetness (“I lost my hat and my coat / And my straight-laced shoes / Oh Lord / … the gamblin’ polky-dot blues … ”). Rodgers’ classic “In the Jailhouse Now,” featuring Nevada City’s John Girton on clarinet, gets a fresh treatment with Slim’s happy-go-lucky vocals. The title track, with a melody that gives a musical nod to the 1892 song “Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell),” is one of Slim’s originals: “Vaudeville cowboy / … before you’re gone, come sing us a song / And come drive our cares away.”