Jug Band music

[catmandu2]

Anyone have an avid interest in JB? I can feel a new hobby coming on...

[journeybear]

There are a few of us around hereabouts. I've been in two jug bands, there's a member around Albany who's in one, name escapes me. Whatever you do, do NOT go to my myspace page and listen to the tracks there. Not my best work but reasonable.

I've also written/edited wikipedia articles on the subject - trying to keep it real. I may have to email some better pix for the social group, maybe even join it ... Maybe I should put my old avatar back up ...

[catmandu2]

[QUOTE=journeybear;778172]Whatever you do, do NOT go to my myspace page and listen to the tracks there. Not my best work but reasonable.
QUOTE]

Oh come on...your stuff sounds good (but, Jug?..)

Jug seems to combine old-time with early jazz...what fun! I saw a clip of a couple of guys playing reso-mando and banjolin--they sounded just right. I'm going to whip up the tenor banjo...my ragtime dixie-style band only plays out a couple of times a year...I'm going to make my kids play jug with me.. A St. Pat's Day gig this week made me get the mando out...gonna keep it out now!

[journeybear]

There ya go! They were among the best. Gus Cannon and His Jug Stompers also. More recently there was the Kweskin outfit, some former members still carrying on (some have passed on).

Oh come on...your stuff sounds good (but, Jug?..)

PS: I told ya not to go there! But since ya did - gotta scroll down to the ones marked PJB ...

[catmandu2]

...gotta scroll down to the ones marked PJB ...

Peanut jelly and butter?

Hey, I think I just found the name for my new jug band (unless...this is yours already )

[journeybear]

Philadelphia Jug Band, goombah!!!

Boy - somebody else better join this soon, or else it's gonna get pretty darned silly pretty darned fast!

Michael Eck - that's the member I was thinking of ...

[AZStu]

John Sebastian and the J Band have recorded a couple of good Jug Band discs. Yank Rachell played mandolin on "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" and "I Want My Roots". The final song on "Gus'" was the last recording by Yank Rachell before his death.

[catmandu2]

Well, here it is (in the words of Ms. Barbara, you knew it had to happen )...

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/group.php?groupid=156

[Rick Schmidlin]

My fav Jug Band is Jim Kweskin's Jug Band.

It sounds so sweet it hard to beat.

Also when they first played Gus Cannon was only 35 years away from us. Now we are 45 from Jim Kweskin.

[Tracy Ballinger]

I have heard of Leroy Troy and the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band... but I don't know if they actually do jug band music (or, really, what jug band music sounds like!) or if they just liked the name!

[catmandu2]

Tracy-

Picture bluesy fiddle and mando, slow, plodding oom-pah, and a little kazoo...





And, more kinetic stuff..

[mandroid]

Less likely to break an antique Kerosene Jug, if you drop it, they were made of soldered together sheet metal.

[Tracy Ballinger]

[QUOTE=catmandu2;778211]Tracy-

Picture bluesy fiddle and mando, slow, plodding oom-pah, and a little kazoo...


Cool, thanks for the example!

[Gary Alter]

Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur have started doing some gigs together again. You can check their schedule at:
http://www.geoffmuldaur.com/tour.html

I had a chance recently to hear Geoff in a solo show and his voice is strong as ever. He picked some mandolin occasionally with the jug band.

[Alex Orr]

Love the stuff. Memphis Jug Band is classic as is the amazing stuff from Gus Canon and His Jug Stompers (aka Canon's Jug Stompers). The two Ruckus Juice and Chitlins compilations out on CD are both terrific as well. Me and some friends had a brief jug band a while back called George Washington and His Wooden Teeth Jug Blowers. However, we quickly realized that playing a jug well is quite difficult so we replaced it with a washtub bass. Much easier on the lungs that washtub bass.

[catmandu2]

Indeedy. I would be inclined to call it "gut-bucket-jug band."

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

we do a lot of jug band and 30's - "trouble in mind", "cakewalk", "viola lee", etc. don't think our current offering on cyber is accurately representative, but you may get a hint. our 'go to' gigging jug is 2 gal metal gas can, although there are other jugs. and jaw harps, and jawbones, and other unmentionables. i've been in jug bands for my whole musical life it seems. and, yes, Leroy Troy is the real deal - totally has his heart in it. don't miss a chance to get to hear him solo!

http://myspace.com/coldriverranters

[catmandu2]

What got me into playing rags on banjos and everything in the first place...when I first heard this on some compliation disc about six years ago...I've been playin this song ever since.

[JCLondonUK]

I love JB stiff too, and had a great conversation on another forum with some older musicians who tried to teach me (online) how to play the jug. Then I went out with an artist friend who used to play the hoover (vacuum machine, for non-Brits) in a skiffle band looking for suitable jugs, but we couldn't find anything that didn't have a picture of the royal family on it. That stretched my sense of irony too far, so I'm still jugless, but I'm also itching to develop this as a new hobby ...

PS -- if anyone here from the UK can steer me towards somewhere to get a playable (non-royal) jug, I'd be very grateful

[catmandu2]

Someone somewhere mentioned a plastic bleach bottle...louder than a jug.

[Dennis Satterlee]

Does anyone out there remember that David Grisman got his professional start in the Even Dozen Jug Band which recorded an album in 1963?

[Charlieshafer]

Carolina Chocolate Drops!! Latest and greatest in a genre that always seems to live, and rightfully so.

[Bill Foss]

For a few years there, all I could do was eat and sleep jug band music. While I appreciate the "revival" jug bands like Jim Kweskin, The Even Dozen JB, etc, there's nothing that beats the old recordings of the Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon, King David, etc. But then again, if it wasn't for the revivalists, I might not have ever heard any Jug Band music to begin with.

There is tons of great mandolin playing in these old recordings, especially Vol Stevens on mandolin banjo with MJB, and who every the mando player was with King David.

The California Jug Band Association does great things to help keep JB music alive in my neck of the woods. They have an annual festival that has included the likes of Mr. Kweskin, Dan Hicks and Maria Muldaur. Yes!!!

Please check out these projects I've been involved with of Jug Band and Jug Band inspired music:

http://www.myspace.com/axelrodcaryandfoss

http://www.myspace.com/billfossmusic

http://www.myspace.com/devinesjugband

[Bill Foss]

The California Jug Band Association:

http://www.jugfest.org/jugfest/

[journeybear]

Here's The Jug Band from Philly 1988. Fritz Richmond, Geoff and Maria Muldaur are original members (Kweskin at this time had given up the devil's music and was working as a carpenter to the stars around L.A.); sidemen are Bill Keith, Kenny Kosek, Stephen Bruton, and Paul Geremia (watch for arrival mid-song). Geoff is using an odd open tuning, in which one course is set a third apart - either the E or A string, I forget. I know this because when my other band, Washboard Slim And The Blue Lights, played at Winnipeg in 1991, we did a workshop with them. He borrowed my banjolin, and left it in this weird tuning. Their utility guy for that gig, Eric Weissberg (yes, Mr. Duelling Banjos), saw my confused look and said, "Oh, that's his Minglewood tuning. Here, let me put it back for you." Tuned it by ear - bang zoom - in less than a minute. My running joke for years after that was that I never had to tune it again.

The second is my buddies in the Philadelphia Jug Band a couple of years ago, seems like it's late night and after several beers. The original four members got their minds blown by the Kweskin Jug Band at the second Philly Folk Festival and immediately put a band together. Even though they moved apart as time went on, they still get together for Fest and New Year's Eve, at least, and as you see, carry on, with perhaps a bit more heart and gusto than talent. That's not a slam; in fact, their joie de vivre when it comes to music is truly delightful, endearing, and infectious. I met them in that same year of 1988 and camped with them every year since then until I left for the end of the world here in 2002. They insisted I join them as an adjunct member to kind of help them out instrumentally and invited me to join them on their oft-delayed recording. Big thrill to play on the main stage at Philly in 2001, after so many years in the campgrounds. Their repertoire is largely standard jug band revival fare, Kweskin and early Lovin' Spoonful, with a few odds and ends as well. Friday and/or Saturday night they hold forth at their campsite and attract an enormous crowd. Great fun, nice people, and keepers of the flame.

Does anyone out there remember that David Grisman got his professional start in the Even Dozen Jug Band which recorded an album in 1963?

Yup. The band also included Maria D'Amato (later Muldaur) and Stefan Grossman. Here's his picture from the album cover. If I can find the whole thing I'll post it.

[QUOTE=catmandu2;778241]Someone somewhere mentioned a plastic bleach bottle...louder than a jug.

See pic of Fritz Richmond in post #4.. Also, the jug/washtub player in The Blue Lights had one of those high school chemistry stands with a clamp to hold a plastic jug so he could play it while also playing the tub. Truly a double bass player.