Track Listing

1. Bring It with You When You Come - Cannon's Jug Stompers
2. German Blues - Birmingham Jug Band
3. Selling the Jelly - Noah Lewis Jug Band
4. You May Leave But This Will Bring You Back - Memphis Jug Band
5. Walkin' Cane Stomp - Kentucky Jug Band
6. Rising Sun Blues - King David's Jug Band
7. Old Folks Started It - Minnie Wallace
8. Memphis Shake - The Dixieland Jug Blowers
9. Stealin' Stealin' - Memphis Jug Band
10. Sweet Potato Blues - King David's Jug Band
11. R.F.C. Blues - Jack Kelly
12. Brown Jug Blues - Ezra Buzzington's Rustic Revelers
13. Last Chance Blues - Cannon's Jug Stompers
14. He's in the Jailhouse Now - Memphis Jug Band
15. George Street Stomp - Cincinnati Jug Band
16. Casey Bill - Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band
17. Greenville Strut - Mississippi Sarah & Daddy Stovepipe
18. Boodle Am Shake - The Dixieland Jug Blowers
19. Jug Band Special - Whistler & His Jug Band
20. Smackin' the Sax - Phillips Louisville Jug Band
21. What Makes My Baby Cry? - The Five Harmaniacs
22. Piccolo Blues - Jed Davenport
23. Jug Rag - The Prairie Ramblers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267069 in Music
• Released on: 1998-02-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
This trove of 23 recordings matches its superb companion cut for cut. Each selection illustrates the jug genre's richness and diversity of style as well as racial and regional character, with bands' origins ranging from New York and Ohio through Kentucky and Tennessee on down to Alabama. Included are such flapper-age funk classics as Cannon's Jug Stompers' "Bring It with You When You Come"; the Memphis Jug Band's "Stealin' Stealin,'" "You May Leave but This Will Bring You Back," and "The Old Folks Started It" (with stirring vocals by Minnie Wallace); and Noah Lewis' Jug Band's "Selling the Jelly." Lurking in the collection's multicolored depths are discoveries such as "Brown Jug Blues" by Ezra Buzzington's Rustic Revelers and "What Makes My Baby Cry" by the Five Harmaniacs, a white vaudeville act from Brooklyn. Also notable is Mississippi Sarah blowing jug behind Daddy Stovepipe on "Greenville Strut," guaranteed to move the human butt. --Alan Greenberg

Customer Reviews

Excellent sampler of jug band music
I'm not exactly sure what drew me to this wonderful album, but am I glad I found it! Harvey Pekar had mentioned his interest in old jug band recordings from the 1920s and 30s a few times, and so when I saw this compilation, I immediately picked it up. I suppose the bizarre cover photo was also an attraction. If you're familiar with the music of R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Seranaders or if you own the soundtracks to any of Terry Zweigoff's movies, you have some idea what to expect. This is as joyful and soulful as music gets. I wish this kind of music were in style today!

My favorite tracks are "Stealin', Stealin," "Old Folks Started It," and "He's In the Jailhouse Now." Rest assured, though, there's no filler here. You'll be nodding your head and tapping your foot to this CD in no time.

Call me Jughead
This album is ridiculously cool and great. Generically, the songs are all over the map: equal parts jazz and hillbilly music. Jug bands were the missing link between urban pop and rural folk forms. Who knew? You're missing out if you don't have this CD.