# Music by Genre > Jazz/Blues Variants, Bossa, Choro, Klezmer >  The Texas Sheiks (Geoff Muldaur's super jug/blues band)

## Larry S Sherman

I've been having fun listening to some vintage jug band/blues music, as well as the 1960's music by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. I like the driving blues, free spirit, and there's actually a lot of mando in those old tunes.

By chance I stumbled upon Geoff Muldaur's appearance on Fresh Air (NPR), and learned about his project The Texas Sheiks.



Here's an NPR Review.

Every track on the CD is amazing (NFI), and I'm finding myself getting drawn even further into these old songs, and even fantasizing about getting a National guitar to go with my National RM-1. The project was one of the last for Stephen Bruton, who was able to complete his work on the CD before he passed from cancer in May 2009.

Anyone else like this stuff?

Larry 

PS: This CD  is another pretty cool collection of modern versions of these old songs, and also features the Texas Sheiks.

----------


## Tom Mylet

Larry: I've had it for a few weeks and haven't been able to stop listening. Yellow Dog Blues, while played on the fiddle, makes a great mandolin piece. The only thing I'd change is to put the mandolin, on the CD, up front like on the video you imbedded.

We're definitely on similar planes...I picked up a used National RM-1 and one of my New Years Resolutions is to get together with some friends and make 2010 a bluesy, jug band kind of year.

Tom

----------


## Larry S Sherman

One more related video:



Larry

----------


## sunburst

I haven't got The Texas Sheiks yet but I did happen across the NPR interview and heard most of that (except when the phone rang and I had to talk on the phone for a little while  :Mad: ). I was rather impressed at how his singing and playing sounded, live on radio mic... just like the records... there's obviously not a lot of "sweetening" going on in the studio when he records and I think that's a good thing.

I've been listening to The Secret Handshake off and on for a few years since it came out. If you like Geoff's music and don't have that one, check it out, you might enjoy it

----------


## Larry S Sherman

And one more...



Larry

----------


## Larry S Sherman

> I've been listening to The Secret Handshake off and on for a few years since it came out. If you like Geoff's music and don't have that one, check it out, you might enjoy it


I'll check that out...thanks! I agree, it was pretty impressive how well his voice has held up after all of these years.

Larry

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

Thanks for the links -- one can Sheik Yerbouti to that!

----------


## journeybear

Thanks for posting all that, Larry. The guitar/bassist in my band heard that while driving his cab Monday and was so knocked out he pulled over and listened to the whole 38 minutes, letting a few fares go by. Then he came over and made me find it on the web. Outstanding. He used to tour Europe with Roy Bookbinder, so I can appreciate his appreciation. I downloaded it so I could listen to it in manageable segments.

I've been in a couple of jug bands, and if you go to my myspace page you'll hear a few numbers. They don't match up to what Geoff & Co. are doing, by a long shot, insrumentally or vocally. Geoff has a real feel for this music, and gets more out of his vocal cords than should be humanly possible. Also, I really dig the way he digs into the history and heritage of the material. I am super impressed that he tracked down the original version of "Blues In The Bottle," which I always thought was written by The Holy Modal Rounders. Who remembers Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers? Also, if you've got Stephen Bruton and Cindy Cashdollar in your band, how can you go wrong?

It was a genuine thrill to play some opening sets for him and Fritz Richmond when they would come around, and doing a workshop with him and the rest of the band (except Kweskin) at Winnipeg Folk Fetival in 1991 was one of the high points of my career. I'll not bore anyone with that story this time around, though I have taken the time to do so elsewhere at the Cafe, so search that out if you like. What has always impressed me about Geoff is his devotion to the music he loves and the people who made it, and the many ways this devotion shows in what he does. It still amazes me that he made a pilgrimage to Blind Lemon Jefferson's grave with a broom just to see that it was kept clean. What a character!

Interesting how Maria Muldaur released a jug band album this year too ...

----------


## resophonic_rebop

yep, 
great stuff,
the only reason I'm sitting here writing this is that
the show he's playing tonite at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley is sold out.

----------


## journeybear

Welcome to the Café! Good to have someone with such obviously excellent taste come aboard.  :Wink:

----------


## Rick Schmidlin

> And one more...
> 
> 
> Larry


Nice,real Sunday morning n :Wink:

----------


## McMandolin

Thanks for bringing back many fond memories.I had all the Jug Band records and followed Geoff's career through Better Days And with Amos Garrett . Geoff even released a disco album. Glad to see he is still out there making good music.

----------


## Rick Schmidlin

I hear he will be in Vancouver :Grin:

----------


## pigpen

Great stuff!  Man, it's too late to add it to my Christmas list.  I guess I'll have to buy it all for myself...the horror, the horror.  

That's the kinda music that makes me want to start my own band.   Forget Velvet Underground, gimme the Texas Sheiks!  (Though as an Arkansan bred to hate Texas from birth secondary to leftover Southwest Conference familial anger, I'd appreciate a name change on their part.)  Anybody want to meet up with a mandolin/guitar player with more enthusiasm than skill moving from Vermont to NYC in a 6 months?  I even gots myself a resonator guitar that my daddy made.  That's gotta have some jug band cred.

----------


## Jim Nollman

In the mid-1960s (I'm hinting at my own age here)  I used to go see Jim Kweskin Jug Band all the time at Club 47 in Cambridge Massachusetts. They were one of my favorite all time bands, and influenced my own playing for years afterward. Years later, I heard Geoff again, as the lead singer for the Butterfield band. He was great then too. 

Geoff  was the only guitar player I ever heard who could play that weird minor modal tuning used so much by Skip James , and make it sound  better than Skip. I recall one special night, the jugband did a bunch of Beatles tunes. Imagine that wobbly Muldaur voice singing Eleanor Rigby. I give Geoff a huge compliment by concluding that he has had the second best vocal tremolo in the past 100 years of music, only surpassed by Edith Piaf. Take a listen to his more recent work, Ox Moan is a classic.

----------


## Ransome

Jeff played three songs for the Peter Case benefit I was at a few months back. He was just amazing! The night also included; T Bone Burnett, Syd Straw, Bob Neuwirth, Sam Philips, Joe Henry, Carla Olson, Eric Idle, Richard Thompson and an appearance by three members of the Plimsouls!

Peter had open heart surgery and like most musicians had little money and no insurance to pay the hospital bills. McCabes in Santa Monica hosted three nights of shows to help him out. 

Magical is an understatement!

----------


## journeybear

> ... as an Arkansan bred to hate Texas from birth secondary to leftover Southwest Conference familial anger, I'd appreciate a name change on their part ...


Tell the truth, I don't know who in the band is from Texas, and ain't none of them sheiks! Catchy, though ...

Gotta say, this is one reason I'm more'n a bit leery of fan-ism - gets in the way of sheer enjoyment. But it does make for some seriously strong feelings, which if turned toward good can move mountains.




> ... I even gots myself a resonator guitar that my daddy made.  That's gotta have some jug band cred.


Sho' nuff! 'Most all of the original jug bands used whatever they could find or make up on their own. Store boughten instruments like fiddles and mandolins were highly prized.

----------


## journeybear

While searching for the geographical backgrounds for the members of The Texas Sheiks, I found that Stephen Bruton died May 11. Sad news, that - such a talented musician. The myspace page has been updated, though it's still pretty uninformative. This press release helps explain things a bit. 

Stephen Bruton was a Texan member of the Texas Sheiks - along with Bruce Hughes - born in Wilmington, Delaware, his family moved to Texas when he was two. Suzy Thompson is from Oklahoma, everyone else is originally from the Northeast: Muldaur and Cashdollar from New York state, Kweskin from Connecticut, Johnny Nicholas from Rhode Island (though he's been in Austin for thirty years). I still don't know how they came up with the name, but it seems like a tribute to The Mississippi Sheiks, and half of them are more or less from Texas. If they are OK with having a Sooner in the band, it behooves the rest of us to let such rivalries be.  :Wink:

----------


## Larry S Sherman

> While searching for the geographical backgrounds for the members of The Texas Sheiks, I found that Stephen Bruton died May 11.


Yes, that was the whole reason for the band/CD. It helped him get his mind off being sick, and he lived long enough to hear the CD before he passed.

Larry

----------


## journeybear

Yeah ... I don't know how I missed that. It's even in your first post.  :Redface:  I don't remember Geoff mentioning this in the Fresh Air interview (but then again, I had my bass player over here, quite excited and drunk (not necessarily in that order), and he wouldn't or couldn't shut up). The shows must be a bit strange as a result.

----------

