To any of us who grew up with hefty doses of HeeHaw, 'eefin and hambonin' are a somewhat reluctant part of our history; a warped but goofily happy memory stored on the same ganglia as long fuzzy sideburns and polyester leisure suits.
Deke Dickerson, called a "rock mainstay" in an April 2003 article in Guitar Player Magazine, is an old "eefer" himself. He explains that eefin is a "sort of wheezing-in-rhythm thing that was popular amongst hillbillies. It goes WAY back but for some reason had some kind of mass-culture resurgence around the late 60's, probably due to HeeHaw on TV which featured Jimmy Riddle eefing on the show." Riddle passed along his eefin ability to Alan Ross, a longtime Nashville Music City veteran, who produced a radio commercial with the late Jimmy Riddle in 1981. Says Ross, "I told him there was no way I’d allow him to leave the studio without first teaching me the quirky craft." Ross later recorded the eefin sensation Rappin Eef, based on the method taught to him by Riddle.
But eefin is more than just a kooky way of singing made popular on a hillbilly TV show. According to information supplied by Dickerson, eefin-nanny is a form of music that dates back to the middle of the 19th century. At that time, players in hillbilly bands sometimes oinked like pigs, chanted, and made wild cat calls —all in order to get more rhythm out of the band. This was done by band members who didn't play musical instruments but wanted to become part of the band.
Certainly one of the forefathers of eefin was Cliff Edwards. As a teenager in St. Louis, he sang in movie theaters and saloons, accompanying himself on ukulele. He developed an unusual singing style with his three-octave vocal range that he called "eefin". This singing style was copied by others of the period, and it evolved into what is generally known today as scat-singing. Edwards' 1922 recordings with Ladds Black Aces and Bailey's Lucky Seven are the first known recorded examples of scat singing. (Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum)
Eefin and scat singing have been further linked by author Ian Whitcomb in The Coming of the Crooners. Mention must be made here of Gene Greene, the self-styled "Ragtime King." His recording of "King of the Bungaloos" revealed little respect for the composer’s ink, tearing the printed sheet into ragtime tatters and providing the example of scat singing on disc. In no way does he anticipate the smooth artifice of the crooner…His true originality lies in the asides; between the phrases he roars "zumm-zumm," like an exalted African ruler riding across the Nile on his very own crocodile, and "uh-huh!" with all the subtlety of a motorcycle engine. He indulges himself in an orgy of odd sounds made for their own sake, vocal flourishes that reel and rock us with delight, the very essence of what true jazz should be. In the second chorus Greene proves he is far from finished, employing a sort of Pig Latin ("When I ri-ger-dide across the mighty Niger-dile") followed by a flurry of pure blather ("Im-bong-bung-bung zoodle-um-bo…") punctuated by what seems to be his own taxi horn impressions. He also mentions "eefin," the word later used by Cliff Edwards (a jazz-scatter-cum-crooner best known as "Ukelele Ike") to describe scat singing.
Finding recordings of actual eefin are rare. "I have heard that there is a whole eefin album by Hee-Haw cast member Jimmy Riddle (who used to eef all the time on the show) but I have never seen it. Probably one of the top ten records on my want list." Deke. Dickerson names other genius eefin' records "Little Eefin' Annie"/"Uncle Eef" by Joe Perkins on Sound Stage 7 records and "Rockin Chair Daddy" by Harmonica Frank."
Dickerson continues, "I used to eef some with the Dave & Deke Combo. I used to do a number called "Eefin' Bird" with the Sprague Brothers band, which was an adaptation of "Surfin' Bird" except with eefing. People would usually think that I needed to be taken to the (mental) hospital at the end of this song."
