In this sports themed episode, Ethan syncopates basketball, football, baseball, sailboat racing, and horse racing. Ethan also answers a letter from a fan and gives him musical advice on how to get a girlfriend. Then the 1914 Chicago Federals baseball club reemerges from history's dustbin to make an appearance. Come for the Sweet Georgia Brown, stay for the relationship advice, athletic competitions and Scott Joplin's "Easy Winners."
As an appetizer, Ethan offers up "Hold Tight (I Want Some Seafood Mama)" and then he starts slurping oysters, right into the microphone (rude!). Then, rather than eating an oyster, he sings a duet with it (Cole Porter's "Tale of the Oyster"). Finally Ethan nets two obscure pieces of mollusk music: "The Oyster Rag" and "The Dance of the Oyster and the Clam." The latter is a "sand dance" that will make you want to do the lambada on the ocean floor.
Ethan kicks off the episode with "Tickled to Death" (1899) by Charles Hunter. From there, things take a morbid turn. Ethan indulges in Jelly Roll Morton's voodoo inspired "Dead Man Blues" (1926) and walks us through the curious ritual known as the New Orleans funeral. Ethan dispels the myths and explains how things were REALLY done in the Crescent City - with gang violence, ham and cheese sandwiches, and plenty of beer and whiskey.