Words and Photos
by
Art Howard

George Pond rocks!

Back in college I was jealous of George Pond. A girl I was infatuated with spent a lot of time hanging around George, and the rest of the time telling me how great he was. In addition to this they had a mutual interest in the Grateful Dead, a local Atlanta band called the Aquarium Rescue Unit, and another band I had never heard of called Phish. I, being a big Led Zeppelin and Who fanatic, thought they had really odd tastes (hey, this was 1992).

One day, as we sat in the student center, George said, "Dude, I've always thought if I ever had a band I would call it The Snake Oil Medicine Show." That was a catchy name, I thought. A few months after that George moved to North Carolina and got married, but not to the girl I was jealous of; she just evaporated. He married Caroline, a fantastic classical violinist.

Four or five years pass and I see the name Snake Oil Medicine Show in the local entertainment listings. I call the club. Its George. He's on tour. Wow!

Another year passes, and by now I've figured out what the whole Grateful Dead/ARU/Phish thing George was into is, because now I'm into it, too. I finally drag myself down to see George's Medicine Show. They are one of the most instrumentally cutting bands out there, with George's metaphysics-inspired lyrics, high-pitched vocals and rap combining Bill Monroe, Flavor Flav and your college philosophy professor into one stew. During a break in the set the microcassette recorder comes out of the pocket and the interview begins.

George had been learning acoustic guitar as his brother Andy was learning banjo well over ten years ago. Even as George and I were attending Kennesaw State College in the early 1990's the duo had performed at a few downtown coffeehouses as Snake Oil Medicine Show. Later George met his wife, Caroline, and the couple and brother Andy moved to Boone, North Carolina. Pond describes Boone as, "This wild scene of all these great, amazing musicians. We ran into those people when we moved up there and everything just evolved." George and Caroline took on day jobs while perfecting the Snake Oil pitch, doing short tours on the weekends. The trio fleshed out to a full band, but when asked how the band came together George Pond says, "Its still happening. Its an evolution."

I tell George that I've seen his band mentioned on the JamBands.com site, and he says, "We're on the fringe of that." What does he mean by the fringe? "The fringe inclusion comes from, just as you told me a second ago, you see our name on the JamBands site. So that instantly puts us in that whole group, and that's the fringe. I mean, we jam. Tonight we played a 20 minute song, or it felt like it. I had my eyes closed at one point." Would he take the label of "jam band?" "Sure, by default. There's been so many people who've said so many different things, and I accept each and every one."

The band's slogan is "Is Was Be," which is also the title of their second record. George has an interest in metaphysics and explains "Is Was Be" as, "All the conjugations of the verb 'to be,' 'to be' being the Big Question, and some people like Edmund Husserl, who coined phenomenology, which is all about 'is, was, be.' Phenomenology: the study of the phenomenon of perception."

The band's songs are a combination of abstract thought-rap and overpowering instrumental prowess. You should go to the Jam Jukebox on this site and listen to their song "Never Cry Pig Wolf;" the banjo and mandolin solos are incredible, with George's raps about the pig wolf partitioning them. That's from their eponymously-titled first CD. Since that 1996 debut Is Was Be and the latest, High Speed Highway Parade have been released.

With such an amazing flurry of notes flying around him, I'm sure it won't be another six years before I see George again, and (insert cute ending here) this is one Snake Oil I'll be happy to buy!

Learn about the curative powers of snake oil at www.SnakeOilMedicineShow.com.

Snake Oil Mediicne Show plays the Harvest Fest at Atlanta's Back Porch in Fairubrn, Georiga October 8th and 9th.