Lou Busch, Joe “Fingers” Carr, and the Honky Tonk Craze

Jeff Barnhart: Faithful readers, due to a very busy travel and performance schedule, Hal Smith indicated he’d need to relinquish his usual seat at our jazz forensics lab and looks forward to returning next month. I’m using this opportunity to invite my old friend pianist Bill “Perfessor Bill” Edwards to explore the great music of Lou Busch, who recorded under the name Joe “Fingers” Carr. Bill, welcome and thanks for joining me! Bill Edwards: I was not aware that you were falling apart, so glad to do that great service to the world. Hope the Gorilla glue was enough. And thanks for asking me. JB: There’s one album that captured my attention and heart when I was a preteen, but before I introduce it for our exploration, can you please tell our readers who Lou Busch was and why he chose to record under a fictitious persona? BE: Louis Ferdinand Busch (July 18, 1910 to September 19, 1979) was the second born son to William Harry Bush and Anna Irene Ernwein in Louisville, Kentucky in the midst of the ragtime era, and would grow up during the jazz age. Even though the family name was spelled Bush, Lou added the c for Busch at some point in the 1920s, largely for the uniqueness it provided. The change was most likely for stage purposes and was not completed legally. Truly blessed with an inherent musical talent, Louis was already leading a ragtime and jazz band by the time he