Jim Yates - Posted - 02/01/2010:  08:57:10

I have an SS Stewart tango banjo that I've been using for our jug band. Have we any other jug band players here?

pegleg - Posted - 02/01/2010:  09:02:35

I don't play jug band music, but I love the sound. I try and catch the Carolina Chocolate Drops any time they are near.

Polle Flaunoe - Posted - 02/01/2010:  09:39:20

Jim,

Itīs somehow my impression, that Jug isnīt a well-defined music style.

History tells, that during the last appr. 90 years - when recordings were possible and preserved - there were three different Jug styles.

I know next to nothing about this - but a buddy of mine knows a lot. Iīm going to play with him tomorrow.

BTW - try listening to my first rehearsal/first take of Colombus Stockade Blues with him and a Sousa-player - is this Jug?

acoustudio.dk/BANJOS%20INCORPO...BLUES.mp3

Kindly regards

Polle

Edited by - Polle Flaunoe on 02/01/2010 09:47:36

jbalch - Posted - 02/01/2010:  09:48:13

Jim:

Are you familiar with this website for Jug Bands and fans? There is real and growing interest in this old music.

jugbandhangout.com/forum/index.php

I don't play in a Jug Band myself. But I'm friends with members of the Jake Leg Stompers. I've traded banjos with some of those fellows and done set-up work on their instruments. Check out their website:

jakelegstompers.com/

carlb - Posted - 02/01/2010:  13:19:09

Yes on occasions with Dr. Cranium's Hole in the Head Jug Band (fiddle or banjo-guitar or jug or clarinet).

Dick Parker - Posted - 02/01/2010:  14:18:21

I've played in a couple jug bands. In the early '70s, before I got seriously involved in traditional jazz, we had a jug band made up of folks from work. We never played any gigs, just office-related parties, and our practices usually started with tuning -- or emptying -- the jug, a one-gallon Gallo container. I think Polle is right: it isn't a well-defined style of music, and the instrumentation is fluid and makeshift. My inspirations were Dave Van Ronk's and Jim Kweskin's groups -- if you listen to their albums you'll hear blues, ragtime, folk and jazz played on banjo, mandolin, kazoo, harmonica, guitar, washboard, washtub bass, and that bass wind instrument, the jug (not blowing across it but brazzing into it with roughly a tuba embouchure). In our band, I played tenor banjo or guitar with a kazoo or a harmonica in a neck brace. We also had a washtub bass, more kazoos, a washboard and a Humanophone nose flute. (The last was played by a guy gifted with perfect pitch, who once played "Amazing Grace" on a 10-speed Osterizer at a party. He gave up the nose flute after he had a rhinoplasty in the 1980s.) As I recall, among the tunes we played were "Mississippi Mud," "Bill Bailey" and "The St. Louis Tickle," a 1903 rag with four strains learned off a Van Ronk album.

About two years ago I got back to it briefly and competed in the annual Twin Cities Battle of the Jug Bands, playing banjo and kazoo in the Don't Try This at Home Jug Band. We came in 20th of about 24 entrants, I think.

Thanks for the tip on the Jug Band Hangout!

Jim Yates - Posted - 02/02/2010:  11:45:34

John, thanks a lot for that Jugband Hangout link.

Dick, Kweskin and Van Ronk were my introduction to jug bands too. Geoff Muldaur was/is one of my favourite vocalists. I also learned the St. Louis Tickle from Van Ronk.

Polle, I must agree that there is no one jug band style. We do songs learned from blues players, old time bands and jazz standards as well as some original stuff done in a "raggy" style.

Here's our myspace page: myspace.com/mapleleafchampionjugband

Edited by - Jim Yates on 03/26/2010 09:23:45

Gary Blanchard - Posted - 02/08/2010:  11:53:07

I'm a jug band fan, but don't play jug band music right now. I love Memphis Jug Band and Cannon's Jug Stompers. There are some great jug bands around now as well.

dilon42 - Posted - 02/17/2010:  09:45:20

I'm highlighting jug bands on my folk music blog this week. Any suggestions of small time jug bands that I should check out?

thepursuitoffolk.blogspot.com

thanks,
--Dylan

drybones - Posted - 02/18/2010:  04:50:24

Hi Jim and all,

I'm a jug band fan and do Steelin and a version of Milwaukee Blues in jug band style with a band -- a fiddler and guitar and harmonica player. I stum chords on a 4 string and play some single note lead. There is something really great about the Memphis Jug Band and Cannon's Jug Stompers -- the ensemble playing, harmony singing, percussion, lyrics and so on.
One question I have about adding a jug -- does the jug blow a single bass note, or is the idea to create a bass line? Is that even possible? Just wondering . . .

db

Jim Yates - Posted - 02/19/2010:  09:45:20

The jug can play a bass line, but often plays root - five. You buzz your lips like blowing a horn, but looser and hold the mouth of the jug about an inch from your mouth. We use a bleach bottle for performance, but used a ceramic jug for our promo photos. It looks very cool, but doesn't play loud enough.
Gus Cannon used a metal jug. Fritz Richmond had custody of Gus's jug for a while. Now that Fritz has passed, I don't know what's happened to it.

Edited by - Jim Yates on 03/05/2010 09:09:20

Charles E. - Posted - 03/03/2010:  17:34:16

I usually get involved with jug band jams with friends at festivals ( Mt. Airy, Clifftop,etc ) during the summer and always have a blast. I wish I could do it more.

catty - Posted - 03/10/2010:  18:04:02

I aspire to play in a jug band. Say, that jug hangout looks like fun. I just joined...they seem to need more members/activity.

I play rags and jazz/pop standards on TB, and fiddle/mando/etc...this jug band stuff seems to combine old-time and early jazz using folk instruments. How cool.

FYI TB or mando players: I started this group yesterday--it may see more activity than the JBHO:
mandolincafe.com/forum/group.p...oupid=156

Edited by - catty on 03/12/2010 09:55:10