One Hand Clapping RecordsThe Treehouse Trio
A 1970s public-TV children's program that became a band — Up in the Treehouse, which aired weekday mornings at half past six, for six years, or one season, or never at all, depending on who you ask. Educational jazz-pop where the lesson under every lesson is the same one.
1970s public-TV educational jazz-pop — Schoolhouse-Rock cheer and Sesame-Street warmth, counting songs and sharing songs, teaching as a form of love.
What Aired (Maybe)
A discography remembered more reliably than it was ever transmitted.
Mr. Gus, Ms. Lulu & Buddy
Mr. Gus teaches in a warm father-baritone, Ms. Lulu in a bright smart-teacher soprano, and Buddy is the kid who asks the question you were too shy to ask.
Mr. Gus (Augustus Tenpenny)
chalk in the pocket; the terrible secret is there is no secret
Ms. Lulu (Louisa Fairweather)
cat-eye glasses; decides when the lesson ends, and hasn’t
Buddy
striped shirt; asks why; emphatically not a puppet
Up in the Treehouse
There was a children's program called Up in the Treehouse, and it aired on weekday mornings at half past six, on a UHF station whose call letters no two people remember the same way — written down, by people perfectly certain of them, as WKTH and WTHB and W?TV. It ran for six years. It ran for one season. It never aired at all. All three of these are believed, sincerely, by people who were there, and the band has decided not to disturb any of them.
The show does not need a broadcast history. It exists wherever it is remembered, which turns out to be a larger and stranger territory than any transmitter could have reached, and a more loyal one. Mr. Gus and Ms. Lulu teach you to count, to share, to name the feeling you're having — and the lesson under every lesson, the one the whole show was secretly always about, is simply that someone is glad you are here.
The Extras
The small stubborn objects and the lyric books — some free, some sold out, some lost. Scarcity is part of the record.
The UHF Dial
Tuned to a channel three people remember three different ways. Turn it and the show comes on, or it doesn't, or it always has been on. The signal was never the point. Being remembered was.
The Lesson Under the Lesson
Every counting song, every sharing song, and the one thing they were all secretly teaching. Printed on newsprint that should have yellowed by now and somehow hasn't.
Pull a Thread
Every band on the label is one room of the same house. A few doors out of this one:
It's half past six in the morning and the show is on. Climb up.