Hoosier Hot Shots

Hoosier Hot Shots
The Hoosier Hot Shots with Uncle Ezra (announcer Pat Barnett at left) publicity photo for the National Barn Dance, 1935
Background information
Origin	Indiana, United States
Genres	swing, jazz, novelty songs
Years active	1930s – 1970s
Labels	Banner, Conqueror, Decca, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, Vocalion
Website	http://www.hoosierhotshots.com
Past members	Ken Trietsch Hezzie Trietsch Gabe Ward Frank Kettering Gil Taylor Nate Harrison Billy Keith Milheim

The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio and records from the mid-1930s into the 1970s. The group formed in the U.S. state of Indiana where they performed on local radio before moving to Chicago and a successful nationwide broadcasting and recording career. The group later moved to Hollywood to star in many feature-length western movies.

The Hot Shots' core personnel were multi-instrumentalists, playing brass band instruments as well as their standard instrumentation of guitar (Ken), clarinet (Gabe), string bass (various), and a strange, homemade instrument known both as the "Wabash Washboard" and "the Zither," played by Hezzie. It consisted of a corrugated sheet metal washboard on a metal stand with various noisemakers attached, including bells and a multi-octave range of squeeze-type bicycle horns. Trietsch constructed this instrument himself as well as a series of slide whistles he played in addition to the washboard. The washboard, along with other artifacts from the band, is now in the collection of the Indiana State Museum.

The Hot Shots' repertoire focused on swing and jazz standards and originals, especially those with a comedic element. Powered by a frantic and seemingly freewheeling instrumental virtuosity, grounded in the musical comedy of vaudeville, the Hot Shots were nevertheless able to cover both comic and more serious material, although some of their more serious recordings retain whimsical ornamental elements, capable of evoking a subtle musical irony.

The lineup consisted of the following members:

The story of the Hoosier Hot Shots begins in the first years of the 20th century on the Trietsch family farm near Arcadia, Indiana, about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. The Trietsch family grew to be one of four girls and five boys, two of which—Kenneth and Paul—were to become the nucleus of the Hot Shots.

Growing up in rural Indiana and aided by the example of a banjo-playing father, Kenneth, Paul and the other Trietsch children developed a keen interest in music and developed their various talents. An ensemble featuring father and sons toured the American and Canadian vaudeville circuit for several years. After the family act broke up, Ken and Paul went to work with another vaudeville group called Ezra Buzzington's Rube Band. It was while touring with the Rube Band that they met another Hoosier, Charles Otto Ward, known to his audiences as Gabriel Hawkins. "Gabe" became the third Hot Shot.