NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Jug band

A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper (kazoo). The term jug band is loosely used in referring to ensembles that also incorporate home-made instruments but that are more accurately called skiffle bands, spasm bands or juke (or jook) bands (see juke joint) because they are missing the required jug player. In music, a band is a group of musicians, or musical ensemble, usually popular or folk, playing parts of a musical arrangement. ... The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannons Jug Stompers were popular. ... Electric Washtub Bass 4 string washtub bass The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is an American folk instrument that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. ... A washboard (left) and a piano player A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing. ... Two examples of the kazoo A metal kazoo The kazoo is a simple musical instrument (membranophone) that adds a buzzing timbral quality to a players voice when one hums into it. ... Doghouse Skiffle Group Skiffle is a type of folk music with a jazz and blues influence, usually using homemade or improvised instruments such as the washboard, tea chest bass, kazoo, cigar-box fiddle, musical saw, comb and paper, and so forth, as well as more conventional instruments such as acoustic... Juke joint (or jook joint) is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring blues music, dancing, and alcoholic drinks, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. ...

In the early days of jug band music, guitar and mandolins were sometimes made from the necks of discarded guitars fastened to large gourds. The gourds were flattened on one side, with a sound-hole cut into the flat side, before drying. Banjos were sometimes made from a discarded guitar neck and a metal pie plate.

The eponymous jug is made by taking a jug (usually made of glass or stoneware) and buzzing the lips into its mouth from about an inch away. As with brass instruments, changes in pitch are controlled by altering lip tension, and an accomplished jug player could have a two octave range. The stovepipe (usually a section of tin pipe, 3" or 4" in diameter) is played in much the same manner, with the pipe rather than the jug being the resonating chamber. There is some similarity to the didgeridoo, but there is no contact between the stovepipe and the player's lips. Some jug and stovepipe players utilize throat vocalization along with lip buzzing, as with the didgeridoo. An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, which has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery or other item. ... An Irish pottery water jug Another Irish pottery jug A jug is a container for liquid, with a handle and an opening for pouring or drinking from. ... A didgeridoo. ...

The swooping sounds of the jug fill a musical role halfway between the trombone and sousaphone or tuba in Dixieland bands, playing mid- and lower-range harmonies in rhythm. The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... A sousaphone player, showing how a Sousaphone is carried The sousaphone is a type of tuba often used in a marching band. ... The tuba is the largest of the low-brass instruments and is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide. ... Dixieland music is a style of jazz. ...

Early jug bands were typically made up of African American vaudeville and medicine show musicians. Beginning in the urban south, they played a mixture of Memphis blues (even before it was formally called the blues), ragtime, and Appalachian music. The history of jug bands is related to the development of the blues. W.C. Handy said that he learned blues style from street musicians, playing improvised instruments. The informal and energetic music of the jug bands also contributed to the development of rock and roll. An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ... Clark Stanleys Snake Oil Liniment. ... The Memphis blues is a style of blues music that was created in 1920s and 1930s by Memphis-area musicians like Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. ... Second edition cover of Maple Leaf Rag, perhaps the most famous rag of all Ragtime is an American musical genre enjoying its peak popularity between 1899 and 1918. ... W.C. Handy photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was an African American blues composer, often known as The Father of the Blues. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...

Original Jug Bands

The first jug bands to record were the Louisville and Birmingham jug bands. These bands played popular dance band jazz, using the jug as a novelty element. Vaudeville-blues singer Sara Martin and America's blue yodeler Jimmie Rodgers both employed these groups on their recordings. Sara Martin (June 18, 1884 â€“ May 24, 1955) was an American blues singer, in her time one of the most popular of the classic blues singers. ... Jimmie Rodgers was the name of two singers: Jimmie Rodgers (country singer) Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer) Jimmie Rodgers (SPC Deputy Director General) Note that there was also a Jimmy Rogers (note the spelling), a blues singer born in 1924. ...

The Memphis area jug bands were more firmly rooted in country blues and earlier African-American traditions. Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and Will Shade's Memphis Jug Band,recorded the great songs that became the basis for the later jug band revival: "Stealin'", "Jug Band Music", "Whoa, Mule", "Minglewood Blues", "Walk Right In" and many others. Gus Cannon (September 12, 1883 - October 15, 1979) was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands (such as his own Cannons Jug Stompers) in the 1920s and 1930s. ... Will Shade (February 5, 1898 â€“ September 18, 1966) was an African-American Memphis blues musician best known for his membership in the Memphis Jug Band. ... This music article needs to be wikified. ...

Other Memphis area bands were Jack Kelly and His South Memphis Jug Band, Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band, and Noah Lewis's Jug Band. "Ma" Rainey's tub-jug band featured the first recordings of slide guitar performer Tampa Red, who later formed his own Hokum Jug Band. Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie cut a few sides each backed up by their own jug bands; Memphis Minnie also sang and played with the Memphis Jug Band. Tampa Red (1904-1981), born Hudson Woodbridge, was an influential American musician. ... Big Bill Broonzy (1893 or 1898-1958) was a prolific United States composer, recorder and performer of blues songs. ... Memphis Minnie McCoy (born June 3, 1897 - died August 6, 1973) was an American Blues musician. ...

The 1930's depression and the devastating effect of radio on record sales reduced the output of jug band music to a trickle. The last sides by Cannon and the Memphis Jug Band were from 1930 and 1934 respectively. Cannon and Will Shade were recorded again in 1956 by Sam Charters on a field trip for Folkways Records. The sound of the washboard and tub bass, however, lasted well into the 1940s as an integral part of the "Bluebird beat" in Chicago. Bukka White's "Fixin' to Die", recorded in Chicago in 1940, is driven by a syncopated washboard backup. Samuel Charters (born Samuel Barclay Charters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 1, 1929; his name also appears as Sam Charters) is an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. ... Folkways Records is a record label founded by Moses Asch. ... Bukka White album cover Bukka White (or Booker T. Washington White, probably born November 12, 1909, near Houston, Mississippi died February 26, 1977) was a delta blues guitarist and singer. ...

The Jug Band Revival

One of the first recordings of the 'folk era' jug band revival was by The Orange Blossom Jug Five, made in 1958 for the poorly-distributed Lyrichord label,"Skiffle in Stereo". It was also the first recording by New York folksinger Dave Van Ronk, and featured Sam Charters, author of 'The Country Blues',and his wife Ann as well as Lenny Kunstadt, co-owner of the Spivey record label. Another early recording group was Jolly Joe's Jug Band, led by record collector Joe Bussard, and released on his own Fonotone label-as 78 rpm records. Eventually these were collected on LP by the Piedmont label. Dave Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 â€“ February 10, 2002) was a folk singer born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York City, and was nicknamed the Mayor of MacDougal Street. ...

The Jim Kweskin Jug Band of Boston, who recorded for the Vanguard label featured the washtub bass and jug player, Fritz Richmond, who later played jug on Warren Zevon's "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead". The New York based Even Dozen Jug Band was the Elektra label's answer to the Kweskin band and featured (among others) Maria D'Amato (Muldaur), Joshua Rifkin, David Grisman, Stefan Grossman, and John Sebastian. D'Amato then moved to the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and married guitarist Geoff Muldaur. Fritz Richmond (1939-2005) was an American musician and recording engineer. ... Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944 in New York) is an American conductor and musicologist. ... David Grisman David Grisman (born 1945 in Hackensack, New Jersey) is a noted bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. ... Stefan Grossman is a New York guitarist. ... John Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American songwriter and harmonica player. ...

The musicians playing in jug music revival groups went on to form other bands. John Sebastian founded the pop music group The Lovin' Spoonful. Country Joe and the Fish came from The Instant Action Jug Band. Mungo Jerry, who had evolved from an earlier blues group Good Earth, were in effect a jug band on their first live performances and recordings, thanks to their use of jug (played by the group's banjo player Paul King, who left in 1972), and washboard, contributed by regular 'extra member' Joe Rush. Another group with jug band roots was the Grateful Dead: key personnel were together in Mother Mcree's Uptown Jug Champions before forming the Warlocks, which evolved into the Dead. This does not cite its references or sources. ... Country Joe and the Fish, from the cover of Feel Like Im Fixin to Die Country Joe and the Fish was a rock music/folk music band known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1965 to 1970. ... Mungo Jerry is the name of a pop group whose greatest success was in the early 1970s, though they have continued throughout the years with an ever-changing line-up, always fronted by Ray Dorset. ... The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck, first published in 1931, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. ... There are several people named Paul King. ... Joe Rush founded the Mutoid Waste Company in the mid-1980s. ...

Pop-rock tributes to jug band music include "Willie and the Poor Boys" by Creedence Clearwater Revival and "Jug Band Music" by The Lovin' Spoonful. The 'Spoonful also mined the old songs: for instance, "Younger Girl" uses the melody of Gus Cannon's "Prison Wall Blues". Cannon's "Walk Right In" was a hit for the Rooftop Singers in the 1960s. Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly referred to by their initials CCR or simply Creedence, was an American swamp rock band, fronted by John Fogerty. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ...

The success of "Walk Right In" brought Cannon himself back into the Stax Records studios in Memphis for his last recording, in 1963 at age 79. The album, called Walk Right In, features Cannon on banjo and old sidemen Will Shade on jug and Milton Roby on washboard. The album consists of a run through of a baker's dozen of his old hits with Cannon interjecting comments and telling stories about the song. Stax Records was a Memphis, Tennessee based record label that existed from 1959 to 1976. ... Thirteen items in a rectangular space, 3+2+3+2+3 arrangement with aspect ratio near 3:2 Thirteen items in a rectangular space, 4+5+4 arrangement with aspect ratio near 11:6 A bakers dozen, also known as long dozen, is 13, one more than a proper...

The children's Christmas special, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, based on a book written by Lillian Hoban and Russell Hoban, features a jug band comprised of woodland-creature Muppets and a soundtrack composed by Paul Williams. The show first aired in 1977. Emmet Otters Jug Band Christmas is a 1977 Christmas special created by Jim Henson, based on a book by Russell and Lillian Hoban. ... John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together The Muppets are a group of puppets and costume characters created by Jim Henson and the company he created. ... Paul Hamilton Williams (born September 19, 1940, in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American composer, songwriter, and actor. ...

Jug bands have continued to exist and evolve to the present day. John Sebastian still leads the J-Band, which included not only musicians from the modern folk revival such as the late Fritz Richmond from the Kweskin band, but also Yank Rachell, mandolin player and jug band leader from the original era. Some bands remain faithful to the original roots, while others continually expand the jug band repertoire to include other folk music, popular music, and classical music forms, such as The Hobo Gobbelins, The Kitchen Syncopators and Sour Mash Hug Band. A young string band in Austin, Texas, calls itself The South Austin Jug Band though it has never had a jug player in its lineup. It is not related to the earlier Austin Jug Band which featured virtuoso jug player Jack Otis Moore and vocalists Danny Barton and Galen Barber. John Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American songwriter and harmonica player. ... A roots revival (folk revival) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. ... Fritz Richmond (1939-2005) was an American musician and recording engineer. ... Yank Rachell (born James Rachell near Brownsville, Tennessee, March 16, 1910; d. ... Carved (electric) and round backed mandolins (front) A mandolin is a small, stringed musical instrument which is plucked, strummed or a combination of both. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

There has been an Annual Battle of the Jug Bands in Minneapolis, Minnesota held since 1980. Over 20 jugbands compete for the "Coveted Holliwood Waffle Iron" trophy, including the Jook Savages, a jugband that predates Kweskin's band and is still together. The competition is held the Sunday after the Super Bowl.

The annual San Francisco Jug Band Festival is held in San Francisco, California each August and there is a JugFest gathering of jug bands each September in Sutter Creek, California. Both of these free, outdoor, festivals feature a wide variety of jug bands in an all-day format that gives each band plenty of time to stretch out and play a full set. An annual Jug Band Jubilee was launched in Louisville, Kentucky, the probable birthplace of jug band music, in October 2006. Nickname: The City by the Bay; Fog City Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Area - City 122 kmÂ² (47 sq mi) - Land 121. ... Sutter Creek is a city located in Amador County, California. ...

External links

Categories: Country music | American styles of music | American folk music | Musical groups American roots music is a broad category of music including country music, bluegrass, gospel, ragtime, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Tejano and Cajun and Native American music. ... Appalachian folk music is a distinctive genre of folk music originating in the Appalachia region of the United States of America. ... Blues music redirects here. ... Second edition cover of Maple Leaf Rag, perhaps the most famous rag of all Ragtime is an American musical genre enjoying its peak popularity between 1899 and 1918. ... Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Catholics of Canada. ... country music, see Country music (disambiguation) Country music, the first half of Billboards country and western music category, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. ... Honky tonk was originally the name of a type of bar common throughout the southern United States, also Honkatonk or Honkey-tonk. ... Bluegrass music is considered a form of American roots music with its own roots in English, Irish and Scottish traditional music. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Dixieland music is a style of jazz. ... There are hundreds of tribes of Native Americans (called the First Nations in Canada), each with diverse musical practices, spread across the United States and Canada (excluding Hawaiian music). ... == Historical background on spiritual music Spirituals were often expressions of religious faith, although they may also have served as socio-political protests veiled as assimilation to white, American culture. ... Gospel music may refer to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the first quarter of the twentieth century or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by predominately white Southern Gospel artists. ... Swamp pop musician Jivin Gene, circa 1959. ... Tejano[1] (Spanish for Texan) or Tex-Mex[2] music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-descended Tejanos of Central and South Texas. ... Zydeco is a form of folk music, originated in the beginning of the 20th century among the Francophone Creole peoples of south-west Louisiana and influenced by the music of the French-speaking Cajuns. ... Blues music redirects here. ... Blues can be categorized into a number of genres. ... The Classic female blues spanned from 1920 to 1929 with its peak from 1923 to 1925. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Delta blues are named for the Mississippi Delta. ... Jump blues is a type of up-tempo blues music influenced by big band sound. ... Piano blues refers to a variety of blues styles, sharing only the characteristic that they use the piano as the primary musical instrument. ... Fife and Drum blues is a rural derivation of traditional country blues. ... Jazz blues is a musical style that combines jazz and blues. ... Blues Rock or Blues-rock is a fusion genre of music which combines elements of the blues with rock and roll. ... Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the early late 1960s and 1970s and combining eliments of soul music and urban contemporary music. ... Punk blues is a Post-punk interpretation of Blues and Swamp rock. ... The British blues is a type of blues music that originated in the late 1950s. ... The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois by adding electrically amplified guitar, drums, piano, bass guitar and sometimes saxophone to the basic guitar/harmonica Delta blues. ... Detroit blues is blues music played by musicians resident in Detroit, Michigan, particularly that played in the 1940s and 50s. ... The Kansas City blues music is mostly famed for the Kansas Blues & Jazz festival and has its own society named the Kansas Blues Society. ... The Louisiana blues is a type of blues music that is characterized by plodding rhythms that make the sound dark and tense. ... The Memphis blues is a style of blues music that was created in 1920s and 1930s by Memphis-area musicians like Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. ... The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb bass pattern supports a melody using treble strings. ... The St. ... The swamp blues is a form of blues music that is highly evolved and specialized. ... Texas blues is a subgenre of the blues. ... The West Coast blues is a type of blues music characterized by jazz and jump blues influences, strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos (which originated from Texas blues players relocated to California). ... Performers in the blues style range from primitive, one-chord Delta players to big bands to country music to rock and roll to classical music. ...

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The Jug Band Revival

External links

Original Jug Bands