Old John Smokey
Old John Smokey is a blues musician from Elmira, New York who is best known for playing the spoons. He briefly appeared during the "Slower and Creepier" episode of NSFW where he was to be the musical guest for the episode, but was ultimately bumped due to time. After sitting through most of the episode waiting to make his Internet debut, he ended up throwing his spoons on the ground in frustration, got up, and walked off camera. However, he did have a single spoon moving to the beat during the ending theme.
After being told he could not play on the show, he tweeted, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!"
Justin and Brian claimed that Old John Smokey had to be bumped because he was booked as a guest on NSFW and they had reached their time limit for that show and contractually had to move on to the after show. Chatrealm didn't buy it.
Music
Old John Smokey's upcoming album, which he apparently has or plans to use a Kickstarter to get funded, is named "Train Time Blues". Not many other details are known, but John had tweeted on July 6th that he would be able to post a free song soon. He has previously promised video or audio recordings, but none have surfaced to date. It would seem that John has to rely on friends or family to record and post these for him. On August 1st, he revealed that his nephew does the album artwork for him. He has also expressed interest in getting his songs on iTunes.
From what he has said on Twitter, he apparently likes to play around town including his local Denny's, some sort of event with a stage (possibly a hotel), and his town square on July 4th. For his 4th of July performance, he raised $32.43 and said he would donate it to local veterans. On one occasion, a waitress asked him to stop.
Train Time Blues
In promoting him on NSFW, Justin said his upcoming album was named "Train Time Blues". This was confirmed when Old John Smokey released a single from that album, "Rock Island", which said it was from "Train Time Blues" in the album artwork. "Papa Durnt Raise No Weezl" will also appear on this album.
Rock Island
"Rock Island" is the first known song to be released by Old John Smokey. The song is a cover of an old prison song. On July 13, 2011, 200 free copies were announced as available via Bandcamp. Since Old John Smokey was unable to perform on NSFW, this was the first time most of Chatrealm had heard him.
The Bandcamp page gives history of the song:
- John A. Lomax recorded this song at the Cumins State Prison farm in Gould, Arkansas, in 1934 from its convict composer, Kelly Pace. The Negro singer, Leadbelly, heard it, rearranged it in his own style, and made commercial phonograph recordings of it in the forties. One of these recordings was studied and imitated phrase by phrase, by Lonnie Donegan, who subsequently recorded it for an English company. The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.
- The actual Rock Island Line was also known as the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.
Papa Durnt Raise No Weezl
In promoting his appearance on NSFW, Justin claimed that John would be performing "Papa Didn't Raise No Weasel". On August 22, 2011, Old John Smokey added a recording of the song (titled "Papa Durnt Raise No Weezl") to his Bandcamp site. The song's album art indicates it will be on the upcoming "Train Time Blues" album. According to the Bandcamp page, the song is a tribute to his father.
Tweets prior to the release of the song indicated that the album art was one of several designs created by his nephew.
Old John Smokey joined Twitter shortly before the Slower and Creepier episode at the request of Justin and Brian. According to John's first tweet, "I'm very excited to be on the Nsfw Show tonight on Twit. The guys told me they would plug my tweeter. Here it tis!"
John is clearly new to Twitter. His first replies to people had their names without a preceding @ until Drewshipper corrected him. His capitalization and punctuation comes and goes and he routinely attempts to type more than Twitter's 140 character limit.
Mistaken Identity
Old John Smokey was only seen on screen briefly. Since he was wearing a hat and had a beard, people have assumed that it was Tom Merritt in disguise (because Tom likes hats and is apparently the only person in the world with a beard.) After the show, a number of people sent tweets to Tom and he tuned in later to find out what was going on. Tom said he had been out by the pool and hadn't seen the show.
In the weeks since, Old John Smokey has continued to tweet. Some have noticed that he has sent tweets while Tom has been in the middle of Tech News Today or Frame Rate or when he has been visible on screen and could not have typed them. According to Twitter, Old John Smokey has posted using either the Twitter web site or Echofon. Tom has also been known to tweet using the Twitter web site, but uses different Twitter clients on his iPhone and iPad.
The release of the "Rock Island" and "Papa Durnt Raise No Weezl" songs have provided further evidence that Tom is not Old John Smokey due to the obvious difference in voices. However, some members of Chatrealm still believe that Tom Merritt is Old John Smokey despite repeated denials by both Tom and Old John Smokey.
Follow-up Appearances
Old John Smokey had indicated via Twitter that he wouldn't able to attend Dragon*Con 2011, but people suggested to Tom that he should cosplay as Old John Smokey. At the end of the show, a man came out wrapped in an American flag, ran around the room, and started to play the spoons. It's not clear if this was actually Old John Smokey or merely Tom Merritt dressed as Old John Smokey...but after the show, Old John Smokey tweeted, "I'm so confused", but it's not known if this is in reference to being confused after being removed by Horseboy, Evil Horseboy, and Abe T. Alien...or confused at seeing someone dressed like him on the live stream.
There was a fan dressed as Old John Smokey in the front row of Dragon*Con: Con of a Dragon 2: Double Complete Dragon. During the show, Brian referenced people cosplaying characters they "invented", to which Tom was quick to defend Old John Smokey as a legendary musician.
Old John Smokey indicated on Twitter that he would perform during TWiT Ain't Nothin' But Pitches and Shows, however he later indicated that he wasn't able to get online because his Ethernet cord was unplugged.
Fun Facts
- When Rhett and Link appeared on Conan, the act following them was also bumped. It seems it's bad luck to be scheduled after them.
- Old John Smokey loves the Chemung County Fair and was looking forward to getting a soft pretzel and funnel cake.