Providing the "missing link" between the 19th century Minstrel Show and the street-wise banter of Moran and Mack's "Two Black Crows", this recording by Irving and Jack Kaufman for Edison Labs was recorded on February 21 of 1917 but was not released until May of
1922. They had made one other "Henry and Hank" record for Edison in 1916, "Henry and Hank on the Levee" (which is available on-line at the
UCSB Special Collection), but this sequal almost didn't leave the vault. It sounds primitive to
modern tastes and sensibilities, for the jokes as well as for the well-worn cultural stereotype, but there was no rancor meant by either performer - they were simply recording stage-proven material which their audiences had liked. The disc from which this was
sampled had been played quite a lot, but on good equipment so the grooves were still in good condition. Noise reduction took care of the usual Edison disc rumble.
