Hot Duck Soup performs enthusiastically for a small audience at the start of their auspicious career.

Hot Duck Soup Novelty Jazz Band follows in the footsteps of Ragtime and Dixieland bands of long ago with an admiring nod to the Hoosier Hotshots, Spike Jones' City Slickers and Weird Al Yankovik.

Hot Duck Soup was formed in the Dark Days of January 2005 by John D. Richards (Banjo) and his beautiful wife, Claudia Dunaway (Cornet). The word went out to any and all persons interested in playing the zany tunes of the teens, twenties, and thirties. Rehearsals at Yummy Mud Puddle Guest House soon took shape with as many as eleven participants present.

A wide assortment of characters & instruments attended every Wednesday night: Guitars, keyboards, drums, recorders, accordions, flutes, pots, pans, bottles, bells, fiddles, kazoos, slide whistles, washboards and one washtub bass. The "sound" was coming together. It was loud. It was silly. It was good.

A fan at the Mount Mitchell Crafts Fair.

By April Hot Duck Soup was down to five steady members: John and Claudia, Rob Levin (guitar), Tim Clark (washtub bass), and Joy Boothe (cacophonium). They were ready to play out. The local health center soon subjected its innocent patrons to the strains of "Sweet Sue" and other ancient tunes. The Burnsville Chamber of Commerce foolishly allowed the soup group to open its Open House and provide assorted noises for the sneak preview of the new Town Center. The Mount Mitchell Crafts Fair began with the band belting out "Enjoy Yourself" right after the National Anthem. The Hot Duck Soup poured over the crowd of unsuspecting listeners and still they wanted more. Either they were gluttons for punishment or they had no place else to be...

Who knows where they'll strike next? Maybe your place!