Jug Band Blues and Classic Hokum [VIDEO]
I grew up a weird kid. Obsessed with 1920s and 1930s culture, fashion, films, music. In high school I dressed like Charlie Chaplin. I carried one of Tiny Tim’s ukuleles in an old brown paper bag and wandered the hallways of my old high-school, turning it into my own freak show.
For awhile I toyed with a fake name, I was Mississippi Jack Norton for awhile, but then I looked at a map and realized John Hurt was named after the state (pretty cool) and I named myself after the river that starts in Minnesota (not nearly as cool). The guys I grew up listening to had names that seemed oddly comforting yet wildly entertaining and bizarre. Names like: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Lead Belly.
Fast forward six or seven decades and one day I find myself sitting at the Kingfield Farmers Market in Minneapolis, a-pickin’ and a-grinnin’ with my wife Kitty. Playing for tips and vegetables. A band wandered through the market holding banjos, washboards, bass clarinets, and looking like they were just a-passin’ through. Sure enough: they were.
They’re called the Big Dixie Swingers (how’s that for an oddly comforting yet wildly entertaining name?) and they were from New Orleans. Don’t ask me what they were doing in Minnesota. Anyhow, we ended up going over to the Lake Harriet Bandshell and filmed this video. An old song, 1934. A jug band “classic” (if there is such a thing) first recorded by the Memphis Jug Band. Kitty and I don’t stay true to the verses, we added some old field hollers and minstrel show lyrics she discovered from an old book of verse from the 1890s. Doesn’t matter how things came to be, we just pressed record and made this video…
Hope y’all enjoy. See you out there on the road, if the good Lord’s willin’, and the creek don’t rise.
Cheers,
Jack
PS: Here’s the Memphis Jug Band recording:
