Track Listing

1. Out of Nowhere  5:24

2. The Mooche  4:27

3. Easy Living  5:09

4. Fly Like a Bird 5:12

5. It Had to be You  4:03

6. The Weasel  4:53

7. Fishing Blues  6:27

8. Maple Leaf Rag  3:46

9. She Done Sold it Out  4:13

10. Petite Fleur  5:03

11. Brazil  4:53

12. My Baby Rocks Me  6:10

13. Memphis Blues  5:12

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The origins of the use of the jug as a musical instrument have been traced by musicologists to the West Coast of Africa, where hollow gourds are still blown like jugs to accompany other indigenous instruments, including banjo-like instruments that also use gourds as resonators. Jug band music came into vogue in the U.S.A. during the late nineteenth century. By the time its popularity peaked in the mid 1920s, two distinct styles had developed – a “rural” style built on rural blues and folk music and an “urban” style derived from ragtime, early jazz and vaudeville. The latter was quite eclectic, frequently borrowing from other sources.

 The popularity of jug band music waned during the depression, but revived in the early 1960s due to growing interest in American folk music in general and the efforts of Californian, Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band in particular, catalysing the formation of other revivalist jug bands in the U.K., Europe, Australasia and even Japan.

The original Gutbucket Jug Band, formed in the mid 1960s, was one of these. The current Gutbucket Jug Band has been together for the past decade and includes four of the founder members. We continue the tradition of the early jug bands by “borrowing” from diverse sources and enjoy the challenge of playing a variety of music in the jug band idiom. We hope that you’ll enjoy this selection from our repertoire, which includes an original vaudeville-style song – “The Weasel” – written by our juggist extraordinaire Tony Dunn and brought to life here in early urban jug band style.

    You can e-mail the band at adu16230@bigpond.net.au