by Daniel V. Garcia
Daily Lobo
When I lived in New Orleans, I watched jazz cats, Delta bluesmen and folkies ply their trades throughout the French Quarter, but one group in particular stood out with its authenticity - the Jug Band at Jackson Square.
The band members' waist-long beards and overalls convinced me they must have time-warped from Appalachia 100 years ago.
Sadly, jug band music was absent from my life until I beheld the well-rehearsed production of the Jugtown Pirates of Lake Champlain last week at the Blue Dragon. Hailing from Vermont, this motley crew of guys and gals live on the road for most of the year in a customized bus.
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"Jug band music stems from traditional slave songs," said washboard and tambourine player Ben Strasberg. "The people would speak different tribal languages, so they would make up these songs (to communicate)."
The originators made instruments out of household items.
"Playing the washboard is the base of it," Strasberg said. "They cleaned their clothing and played the rhythm while they were singing. The jug acts like a tuba in a Dixieland jazz replication."
As the music evolved, jug bands began to earn money by playing in public.
"It started getting popular with the lower class, but as it evolved, it was crossed between Dixieland jazz and old blues and traditional music that had been passed on through the generations," mandolin player Paul Girouard said.
The Jugtown Pirates perform modern takes of traditional jug band music.
"We're taking this circusy slash cartoon aspect on it and just getting really hyperactive," Girouard said. "It's really diverse. We can get all the punk heads down. We've played at hip-hop shows. I never thought there could be a kind of music that would touch every kind of person."
Washtub bass player Joe Hardy said the band has turned jug band music into a way of life.
"We're sort of using the evolution of jug band music to do everything ourselves," Hardy said. "We run the bus on veggie oil, make our own instruments and make our own merchandise and CDs."
The group credits the Philadelphia Jug Band as an inspiration. The Jugtown Pirates met the band at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
"We were about to play at this campsite, and this band asked us, 'Can we play a song with you guys?' We said, 'Yeah. We're playing this tune, "Jugtown Music," by the Philadelphia Jug Band,' and they said, 'We are the Philadelphia Jug Band,'" Strasberg said. "They're legends in jug band music revival, and they took us under their wing. It was a really cool experience."
Strasberg said jug band music has seen a resurgence of interest.
"Around the time of the folk revival in the '50s and '60s, there started to be a jug band revival, as well," Strasberg said. "In every time of crisis, you need this type of music to emerge. Right now, there's a time of crisis, and the music of the people needs to re-emerge."
Jugtown Pirates
Wednesday
10 p.m.
The Tavern Pub
9800 Montgomery Blvd. N.E.
$3
