Recently unearthed from the Busk Break archives, Caster covers this classic “dirty blues” tune in 2011!
At the time of this recording, banjo-playing busker Caster had yet to write a song he felt comfortable playing in front of a camera. So I asked him, “Do you have a cover that you feel you really love? A song that you’ve truly made your own?”
He paused, stroked his thin chin beard, and thought. Then with a smile that seemed to indicate he was a little embarrassed, he said “I’ve become rather attached to a song called ‘Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me'”
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Although Caster knew the song as a Justin Townes Earle tune, its origins go back a bit further. The notoriously unsubtle king of the food-related double entendre, Bo Carter, wrote the song back in the 1930s, and it’s had a long history of covers since. Earle’s cover is easily the best known in recent years, and almost certainly introduced the tune to thousands of people who would never have otherwise heard it.
Caster’s cover, however, may be one of the most energetic and fun versions of the song out there. So why did this performance sit around for so long in the Busk Break archives? Because the other song from that session was Caster’s cover of “I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song),” which was just a hint more entertaining. (In fact, the two sound kind of similar.)
So, I already had one great tune for the series that week, and I had plenty of other videos to work on. It was spring in Asheville, and there were buskers everywhere, so I quickly forgot about this other, not-exactly-terrible song from the same session. It wasn’t until I was re-editing the other video to HD for the new website that I realized there even was another performance. And I’m very, very glad I ran across it.
Thanks so much for posting this great tune and nice performance by a talented busker. . . whom I had the pleasure of meeting on the street in Bar Harbor, Maine, this past summer! I hope you can do me a favor? I didn’t get an e-mail address from Busk Caster. Could you possibly provide me with his e-mail address? — or act as the 3rd party go-between and alert him that I would very much appreciate being in touch with him? Of course I want you to make sure he has my e-mail address so he can contact me should he then choose to do so. In addition to running my solar powered, off grid Bed & Breakfast, I also fill my Maine Summers with playing my Highland Bagpipe throughout the Downeast Maine region. I am lucky to have one steady gig now for the past 9 years; I am the “Piper On the Cliff” in Hulls Cove, overlooking Frenchman Bay, very near the entrance to Acadia National Park. I’ve been piping for 29 years. . . I used to be the Piper in Provincetown (Cape Cod); first in the summer of 1988, then for 4 years I lived there full time and played often as a busker when I wasn’t working for the Center for Coastal Studies! Lucky me, again! As long as I keep music in my life and share it with others I always find myself in great places meeting thousands of wonderful music fans! Thanks for doing this for me, Steve. . . and thanks for having this fun and informative website for the busking world! When you come to visit Maine, give me a call for sweet eco-tourist accommodations! Peace, David