Crackerjack musicianship goes a long way toward a band’s greatness, but showmanship
seals the deal. Pines, on stage, is an old soul and natural performer, storied and steeped in
the best of American music. Live, the group infuses a hundred years of American music
into their performance - everything from early 20th century acoustic blues and Rock-a-
billy, to the sounds of the White Stripes and The Black Keys. They'll even drop some
hip-hop vibes in the mix. It's a fast-paced, swinging, high-energy show.
"It's kind of an alter ego, both a band and a person."
They create a Rock-a-billy, Halloween hootenanny that could have come
straight out of a time traveling vaudeville show.
The Crow Quill Night Owls were formed in 2007 by musician / archivist Kit "Stymee" Stovepipe and tenor banjo/ vocalist Windy City Alex. In 2011 multi instrumentalist Baylin Adaheer was added to the group as a washtub bassist.
The group plays a mix of early blues, jazz, pop songs, ragtime, jug band, and hillbilly music from the 1920's and 30's. They also put their love of old silent films, comics, and bizarre cartoons of the past into the original artwork they create for their albums.
In the style of the Memphis Jug Band, they have a pool of musicians they draw from for gigs, recording dates, and tours, so you can often hear some of the best underground musicians of this style in their band. The band has toured with the belly dance group "The Indigo" in their "Le Serpent Rouge" variety show, performed as part of Baby Gramp's band,and also toured with and recorded two albums as the Garden of Joy Jug Band with Maria Muldaur.
They've played from west coast, to east coast on street corners, at festivals, in rundown bars, house shows, big concert halls, and down in the subways. They've been performing strange early American Music on makeshift and traditional instruments since as early as 2001.
The Hot Seats play stringband music with simple intentions: to keep the role of traditional musician as entertainer and commentator alive and kicking. Their original music is simultaneously hard to classify and instantly identifiable, combining the virtuosic soloing and tightness of bluegrass, the band-driven rhythm of old time, the jerky bounce of ragtime, and the swagger of good old rock and roll. The band’s most recent full length release, Live!highlights the band’s flexibility, moving between bluegrass, ragtime, oldtime, jugband, and Klezmer with ease, injecting humor and sharp witted commentary along the way.
The Jake Leg Stompers evoke the rebellious spirit and colorful pageantry of American popular music before the Second World War, from the Memphis blues to the Virginia Reel; when jazz began, vaudeville was urgent and folk music was still dangerous.
From their headquarters in Bucksnort, Tennessee, the Jake Leg Stompers serve up tangy tastes of chicken-fried, pre-war, hokum-billy jug music to gourmet audiences everywhere.
While members of the band are accomplished musicians, “They don’t let virtuosity get in the way of having fun.” (Washington Post) Each performance is a challenge to the audience to have as much fun as the band. Don’t let their antics fool you though. Their exuberant music is the result of skillfully conceived arrangements and unique vocal harmonies.ß
The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs are Cincinnati's premier Jug Band. They have been around since the early years of the Rolling Stones, have lasted longer than the Beatles and have more living members than the Grateful Dead. In the Cincinnati Enquirer they were once compared to the Julliard String Quartet, although not favorably. They have played at every Tall Stacks, at the Cincinnati Bicentennial Celebration, for the runners in the Flying Pig Marathon, many times in the summer concert series at the amphitheater in Eden Park, for the Art Museum, for a sit down dinner on the observation deck of the Carew Tower, and in many bars, back yards and living rooms throughout the area. From country club weddings to pig roasts to 4th of July parties, they have shamelessly wound up audiences at every variety of event.
You may not have heard of the JACKSON STREET POLECATS. This is not unusual and you should feel no self-reproach. They are, however, a potential source of great joy for you and your loved-ones.
Wielding kitchen utensils, stringed instruments of all sorts, and the voices which are their inheritance from birth, the POLECATS explore the tragic and comedic. At times reflective, at others, displaying the subtlety of an over-caffeinated RHINOCEROS, these young citizens continually dredge the murky shoals of musical tradition while giving release to complex ideas and emotions all their own.
Jug bands traditionally play a mixture of different genres, and the How Long Jug Band is no exception. Following great jug bands from the depression era, the 1960's and the present day, the How Longs switch from blues to early jazz to ragtime, with a few detours along the way. The common elements are homemade instruments -- trading drums for a washboard, trumpet for kazoo and tuba for jug -- and an easygoing attitude that's a pleasure to see.
Folks frequently recognize Stalebread Scottie outside of New Orleans, recalling their days spent on Royal Street, where he has been a linchpin of the busking community for a number of years. Well-traveled and seldom in one place for long, he has played the street corners, bars and stages of countless towns in the States and abroad. Scottie's resume isn't exactly typical: Appeared at Brooklyn's notorious Jalopy Theater. Flanked by burlesque beauties in Nashville. Shared the stage with T Model Ford in Clarksdale. His brand of blues is a blend of Country, Delta and Piedmont stylings, reflective of his roots in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina.
Dwight Hawkins (Blindboy Chocolate) hails from Raleigh, NC & left home at an early age to travel. He learned to play ragtime, jug, and country blues music riding freight trains around the country over the last 13 years. This is how he met Stalebread Scottie. They first started playing music together busking, or street performing, on the streets of New Orleans several years ago. Besides their personal taste and love for the music, they play this style and genre of music to authenticate and keep alive songs passed on generation to generation by hobos who would sit around the jungle camps trading stories and songs and sipping whiskey by the fireside as they waited for their train to roll by.
National
Jug Band Jubilee
is a gathering of the nation's best jug bands
bringing America's Happiest Music back to its old Kentucky home, in the city that started it all.
Dedicated to preserving jug band music at its late 19th century home--Louisville, Kentucky.
National Jug Band Jubilee--funded in part through aKentucky Arts Council grant.
