"Vaudeville Specialty No. 6"

by Joseph Natus

One of seven records made for Edison 2-minute brown wax in July of 1900, featuring the most popular of the pioneer performers at that time (such as William Steele and Dan Quinn), this was the sixth in that series. Joseph H. Natus was the guy who sang duets with Arthur Collins before Byron G. Harlan replaced him. He recorded prolifically as a solo act up until about 1905. This performance weaves three excerpts of songs through a Tennyson-esque narrative lasting just a little over two minutes. The pianist is probably Frank Banta. The surface of this record had some mold on it but it didn't obliterate the performance, and noise reduction improved the sample. The last couple of seconds are not here due to the record extending beyond the feed screw of my humble machine.
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