Jug Band Overview . . .

During the 1890s, 'spasm bands' made their first appearance on the streets of Southern American cities, creating jazz with a variety of improvised and non-traditional instruments such as kazoo, whistle, banjo and wash tub. Sometimes they were called 'Hokum Bands' from the American Indian word 'hokum', meaning bogus or imitation.

Some specifically used a 'jug' to provide the bass line. A paraffin can or earthenware jug would be employed, the player half humming half blowing a raspberry into or across the opining to produce a deep, fruity bass note. As such the jug replicated the tuba of the jazz bands and was sometimes called 'the poor man's tuba'. The melody was usually carried by a kazoo or harmonica whilst tin thimbles scraped across a galvanised washboard could provide a persuasive rhythm, particularly in bands toward jazz end of the jug band spectrum. This effect can be heard in the work of the Five Harmoniacs whose 'Coney Island Washboard' was recorded by the Armpits in 2003.

By the early 1900s jug bands were well established in Louisville, Kentucky, where they were much in demand, equally popular among whites and blacks, playing a variety of music which included blues, pop songs of the day, ragtime and old country tunes. One of the earliest jug bands to record was a Louisville group led by Earl McDonald, the Dixieland Jug Blowers, which included in its repertoire that Armpit favourite of many years, 'Boodle am Shake'.

By 1909 the whole of the state of Tennessee was subject to a prohibition law, the notable exception being Memphis, major steamboat city, capital of the cotton trade and heart of the South. The city's saloons, gambling houses and dance halls attracted large numbers of visitors while at weekends Beale Street was the reward for a week of gruelling work in the fields and factories. Jug bands, with their lively blues and dance melodies and cheerful sound flourished in this atmosphere.

The Memphis Jug Band, a loose knit outfit led by guitar and harmonica player Will Shade, was so popular that it sometimes split into two sections for different venues on the same night. The band would also have been hired by restaurants and food stands to attract crowds, and when there were fewer gigs, they would have played on the streets of Memphis, particularly the wealthy white neighbourhoods where young professionals would be generous with tips. Occasionally, even, jug bands would leave Memphis, perhaps for several weeks, to travel with a medicine show. Between 1927 and 1934 the Memphis Jug Band also enjoyed an extensive recording career and two of their tracks, 'Overseas Stomp' and 'Stealin Stealin' have also been recorded by the Armpits.

Perhaps the greatest of the Memphis jug bands was led by Gus Cannon, a farm hand from Mississippi who had fashioned his first banjo from a bread pan and broom handle. Inspired by Noah Lewis' superb harmonica playing, Cannon's Jug Stompers produced a blend of country-dance sounds and blues feeling unequalled at the time. In 1974 the Armpits recorded Cannon's 'Featherbed', under the guise of 'Henry Thomas', and for many years included 'Goin' to Germany' in their act.

For twenty years jug band music was one of the most popular forms of music in the South, but with the depression of the 1930s and perhaps with the novelty effect of jug bands music wearing thin, it became difficult to keep bands together and many musicians reverted to daytime jobs, sometimes playing at weekends. By the time the Rooftop Singers had a UK Top 10 hit in 1963 with Gus Cannon's 'Walk Right In', Cannon was labouring in Memphis. Despite royalties and concert appearances, there was no huge jug band revival. However, as part of renewed interest in early blues, the jug band sound enjoyed some popularity in the 60s and 70s, spearheaded by such musicians as Jim Kweskin and John Sebastian.

The new millennium sees yet another small wave of revival in the USA with a Jug Band Festival now held annually on Beale Street, Memphis. In the UK, though, the Armpit Jug Band is one of only a handful of bands keeping alive the jug tradition of that earthy, cheerful, infectious good time sound ~ jug band music.