REVEREND SHINE SNAKE OIL Co.

The true origins of REVEREND SHINE SNAKE OIL Co. are shrouded in hearsay and conjecture. It is however a story to be told and as the name suggests, it is anything but simple…

Moving from their native New York to Copenhagen, Claudius Pratt and song writing partner Justin Moses Gunn founded REVEREND SHINE SNAKE OIL Co. in 2007.They are joined by Martin Ollivierre on bass, Matthias Klein on drums and Niko Hoi playing harmonica, saw and hammond B3 organ

Primitive & grounded, folk-tales connect seemingly disparate genres into a single curbstone philosophy “SOAP BOX MUSIC”. Converging African polyrhythm’s with punk-rock dissonance. Combining swing, rock-steady and rhythm & blues… Sarcastic and sentimental; Agitated and serene... RSSOCo. is a throwback to the Negro spirituals and the American folk tradition. They too are a salute to advertising and commercialism- raised together, like traveling horse and buggy teams, peddling miracle medications and their sundries to a stripped and intimate pulse.

Their EP "SOAP BOX" is their calling card and like the Sunday soapbox orators of Hyde Park London, who have assembled at Speaker's Corner since 1872 to discuss religion, politics, and other topics so to this record express their concerns and is a flamboyant release of frustrations…

Vocalist Claudius "ANGERYMAN" Pratt a.k.a. the Bowery Barometer fancies himself a clergyman and a prostitute. Offering up some comfort in this world of both the sacred and profane.

Come see the medicine show and drink of the balm that is known to cure disease, smooth facial wrinkles, remove stains in clothing and prolong life.


- Richard Alexander


When asked about minstrel shows and the like, most people think of America in the 19th century, lampooning blacks in disparaging ways. Some recall traveling horse and buggy teams peddling miracle medications and other products. Yet others go back even further to the professional entertainer of 12th and 17 century: The juggler, acrobat, story-teller, secular musician and instrumentalist. But i will tell you a tale of magnanimous proportion that will expose the true origin of the minstrel.

See, the minstrel is older than time, for the minstrel is time and time keeper. Let us examine time: "the Swiss manufacture it, the french hoard it, Italians squander it, Americans say it is money and the Hindus say it does not exist..." Replace the word time with God or the Devil and you would probably find the same attitude from each of the respective cultures. These Archetypes (Time, God & the Devil), these icons and symbols are all gifts from the "MINSTREL", for he is the Great story-teller, the first story-teller, who sang the world into existence. Go to Africa now and you will see him sitting there in a cool earthen room pounding his rhythm out on a gimbrie singing singing his story, the oral tradition.

We at REVEREND SHINE'S SNAKE OIL Co. were born into this same tradition and have come to spread the light, cooking up food for thought in our Soul Kitchen and Spreading the word through our medicine show, selling our elixir everywhere we go. It cures diseases, smooths facial wrinkles, removes stains from clothing, prolongs life, and curses any number of common ailments. We are a Flea Circus of Magicians, Court Jesters, Musicians and Story-tellers.

- the plum wine poet