Curtis Hitch led his band the Happy Harmonists from 1922 to 1927 in Indiana. While playing at Indiana University in Bloomington they met a young law student by the name of Hoagy Carmichael and recorded two of his songs “Bone Yard Shuffle” and “Wash Board Blues” which were Hoagy’s first recordings. Carmichael joins them at the piano.

Curtis Hitch’s Happy Harmonists were very much influenced by Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines who were playing a lot in Indiana at that time. Hoagy and Bix became friends when the Wolverines were playing at Indiana University. The Wolverines had recorded Hoagy’s song Riverboat Shuffle the previous year. If you listen to the piano solo in “Wash Board Blues” you recognize it has the theme from Carmichael’s later song “Lazybones“.