A Voice Like A Saw

The musical saw is often compared to the human voice, and that’s part of its charm. It isn’t often, however, that singers’ voices are compared to a musical saw. The Dezurik Sisters are an exception. The Dezurik Sisters, Mary Jane and Carolyn, were stars on WLS The National Barn Dance radio show in the 1930’s. They were also known as the Cackle Sisters. The sisters grew up on a farm in Minnesota in a musical family.  The sisters yodeled and did bird imitations, in addition to making other novelty sounds. The WLS radio magazine Standby had frequent articles about them and one article mentions, “They are clever at imitating the sounds of musical instruments such as the Hawaiian guitar, trumpet, musical saw and mandolin.” But how can the sisters sound like a musical saw? Listen to the following clip. You can hear it around 1:30, and it’s lovely.

You can also read more about them in this edition of Standby magazine from 1937. The article appears on page 7, titled “Yodeling Sisters.”

Standby-1937-09-11 2
Posted in , ,

Ro

Rowena Southard, your blog hostess, is a musical saw enthusiast who lives in California. She loves all kinds of music and has a special fondness for unusual instruments.