The Memphis Music of Berl Olswanger (26-page oversized booklet + 55 page sheet music book in pocket) celebrates the career of "Mr. Music." Despite offers to go on the road with name bands, Olswanger (1918-1981) found touring not to his taste and opted for a less hectic life in his hometown. Reprints of news clippings, most from the Memphis dailies, fill the illustrated booklet. The sheet music surveys the breadth of his compositions: from sentimental love songs to commercial jingles. Olswanger's blues music ("The Man Who Stole My Beale Street Gal" and "Big Mistreatin' Bitter Sweet'n Blues") displays the influence of vaudeville and the music hall as much as Black music (via W.C. Handy—see picture below of Berl with W.C. Handy and Paul Flowers, columnist with the Memphis Commercial Appeal). The hilarious, presumably self-parodying "Twelve-Chord Boogie" plows methodically down and up 13ths on every step of the scale ("Sharp that A, Flat that B, Wiggle that C and D and E . . .").

Most of the music consists of melodies and chord symbols only: "Berl's Boogie" is arranged in parts for band. There are a few double-staff piano pieces, including "Juice Harp Rag"—for piano with jews harp breaks—and Olswanger's trickiest and most memorable composition, the fast "Berl's Jazz Polka in Elevenths and Thirteenths." Part piano novelty, part rag, and flavored with soft Bixian harmony, it takes a big mitt.

Olswanger's music is genteel and sunny, strong on mid-century pop charm. Most pieces flow from a basic melodic figure endlessly varied. The numbered first edition is limited to 600 copies.
— From Cadence: The American Review of Jazz and Blues, June, 1986