FAMILYSEUSS

If the creatures from a psychedelic-colored Dr. Seuss book jumped off its pages and picked up a fiddle, guitar, bass, banjo and drums, they would call themselves the Snake Oil Medicine Show. A bright and lively bluegrass, jazz and reggae ensemble from Appalachia -- Asheville, North Carolina to be exact -- this family-oriented team of songwriters offers something with which few other modern musicians have experimented. The internationally-themed Snake Oil Medicine Show, while presenting a performance appealing to anyone aged infant to grandparent, concisely merges music with live art that grows into a painted canvas before your eyes.\nAfter experiencing a tour bus breakdown at the beginning of their current tour, the members of Snake Oil were forced to cancel their first gig in seven years. Fortunately, the band was able to return to the road. En route to Bloomington for an upcoming show at Uncle Fester's, the performers spoke to Weekend on a cell phone while driving over the mountains of Wyoming.\nGuitarist and bassist George Pond founded the Snake Oil Medicine Show with his brother Andy (banjo) in the siblings' basement in the early 1990s. Caroline Pond, George's wife, found her lyrical calling from contra dancing, studying yoga and practicing the ukulele, while tuning her classic 1920's voice as the band's co-frontperson, along with husband George. Fourth member, Billy Seawell, incorporates eastern Indian styles with gypsy jazz percussion. Finally, and also a full-fledged member of the band, is artist Phil Cheney, who complements the live music by painting various multi-colored animal and scenic-themed, swirling murals for an audience. \n"Phil pushes the music and paints vivid, family-oriented art on a large canvas," says promoter Michael Brand of the Blue Dolphin Music Group -- the band's label. "Their bus pulls a trailer that carries his past murals. As space will allow, they put the paintings around them (during shows)." \nStoring Cheney's works-in-progress in the bay of a moving truck, the musicians bring out the art for every concert, hanging the pieces around the stage where they perform as a sort of art gallery in motion. Constantly painting new scenes and colors as the band plays its worldly styles, Cheney reflects the mood of the music through his hands, to his paints, and finally, to his canvases.\n"My paintings have childlike imagery. They're allegorical," says Cheney. "I like animals, especially whales and other creatures of the sea. I also use the recurrent themes of Easter Island, peace, harmony and respect for all beings in my paintings. I tend to use very bright color, primitive images and ancient hieroglyphics as well."\n"My mom's a painter," continues Cheney. "I've enjoyed music all my life and wanted to be in a musical group but never learned an instrument. Snake Oil wanted a visual artist to perform with them. Now I do CDs, press kits, posters and other forms of art."\nNamed after the covered wagon days of the 1800s, when, according to Caroline, who also plays the fiddle, "people would try to sell their wares and musical minstrels would play," the Snake Oil Medicine Show presents itself as a satirical yet magical project.\nReferring to themselves in a press release as "jazz thugs with a hillbilly fetish" who promote "world peace and whale awareness through music and art," Snake Oil's mission is both honorable and unique. \nAccording to Cheney, the band plays music that sends a message of "peace, hope and higher consciousness."\n"There's no cussing!" he says. "It's happy and positive music and color."\nInfluenced by the Beatles, Monet and Vincent van Gogh, among others, Cheney dedicates his work to family-friendly visuals.\n"We bounce off each other," says Caroline. "It would not feel like a show if I didn't turn around and see Phil painting. He's been with us for eight years. It's so neat that we can combine a visual and musical show together."\nIn prior years, the band has expanded its appeal to wide audiences by leading children's parades and voice and instrument workshops to promote musical awareness.\n"Children love them," says Brand. "They're classic from six to 65-years-old. They're so eclectic-blues, reggae, zydeco -- (with) a whole mish-mash of influences."\n"You know how they say every snowflake's different? Well, every Snake Oil show is different," says Caroline. "We're not trying to put any more negativity out in the world … It's high-powered, energetic music. We're smiling; they're smiling. We're dancing; they're dancing. I've seen toddlers and grannies get up and dance!" \n"Everyone dresses up and wears costumes -- brightly-colored, goofy stuff that's fun and also classy. We wear boots, ties, funny dresses and big hats," adds Cheney.\nVisiting the Yonder Mountain String Band in Colorado last November, Snake Oil kept to its widely-influenced tradition and practiced songs with them, as well as with the band Leftover Salmon. \n"We'll get together with our friends in Leftover Salmon and pick," says Caroline.\nIn January, Snake Oil traveled to Jamaica, where they performed and studied with native musicians, the Overtakers -- introducing bluegrass and jazz to them and learning reggae styles of songwriting in return.\n"They spent the last two years, a week each year, touring in Jamaica with the Overtakers, a popular band in the '70s," says Brand. "They write their own reggae tunes and get influenced by where they travel. They're incredibly beautiful people."\n"The Overtakers are from the west end of the island. We consider them family," says Caroline. "When I went to yoga school, the guys went to Jamaica into sort of a reggae boot camp... When we travel, we tend to meet other musicians and trade songs."\nAccording to Caroline, Cheney even painted pictures of Snake Oil while they visited Jamaica.\n"I went to yoga school in March and got inspired to write songs there," says Caroline. "'Lotus Queen' is my peace song. Our new album, (We Make it Nice), which is coming out next month, includes mostly songs from yoga school and the reggae styles that the boys taught me."\n"We're kind of a band with ADD," she continues. "We like to mix it up a lot"