Richard Raichelson describes the musical tenor of the 1920s in the notes of a record he released in 1984 called “Twin Cities Shuffle – 1927 to 1930.”

In Minneapolis, during the twenties, the entertainment strip was along or near 7th Street.  It housed numerous clubs, restaurants, theaters, and hotels.  Dayton’s tearoom had a three-piece band led by Dick Long.  Denny’s, a speakeasy was close by in the basement of Hudson’s Jewelry Store.  For 6 years, beginning in 1931, Norvy Mulligan’s band played in the Flame Room of the Radisson Hotel on 7th near Hennepin.  They broadcast over KSTP in a program titles, “Dancing in the Twin Cities,” which featured Norvy’s orchestra in Minneapolis and the band at the St. Paul Hotel.  Previously, Mulligan’s 12-piece band, with Frankie Roberts, had played at the Coconut Grove on 6th and Hennepin, a club frequented by gangsters.  In St. Paul, the classy Boulevard de Paris, now a grocery store, was located near the Coliseum.  Mulligan remembered hearing Ban Pollack’s Orchestra there, with Teagarden, in the early part of 1932.  Norvy’s band played the club after prohibition ended.  Mulligan’s Minnesotans, with Doc Evans, were at the Excelsior Amusement Park, in the town of Excelsior, on and off for 7 years.

Most of the songs were recorded at the Lowry Hotel in St. Paul.  Songs on the record are:

• Darktown Shuffle by Eddie Carlew’s Baby Aristocrats Orchestra, recorded 1927
• Indiana HUD, same as above
• Wabash Blues by Tom Gates and His Orchestra, 1927
• The Bucket’s Got a Hole In It, same as above
• Alabama Stomp by Walter Anderson and His Golden Pheasant Hoodlums, 1927
• Melancholy, same as above
• Hokus, same as above
• Sugar Foot Strut, same as above
• Brainstorm, by George Osborn and His Orchestra, 1927
• Black Maria, by Arnold Frank and his Roger’s Cafe Orchestra, 1927
• Jealous, by the Marigold Entertainers, 1929
• When My Sugar Walks Down the Street, same as above
• I Get the Blues When it Rains, by Wally Erickson and his Coliseum Orchestra, 1929
• Hard Luck, same as above
• Skirts, by Slatz Randall and his Orchestra, 1930
• I’m a Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas, same as above