Jug Band - Original Jug Bands

Original Jug Bands

The first jug bands to record were the Louisville and Birmingham jug bands. These bands played popular dance band jazz, using the jug as a novelty element. Vaudeville-blues singer Sara Martin and America's blue yodeler Jimmie Rodgers both employed these groups on their recordings.

The Memphis area jug bands were more firmly rooted in country blues and earlier African-American traditions. Will Shade's Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers recorded the great songs that became the basis for the later jug band revival: "Stealin'," "Jug Band Music," "On the Road Again," "Whoa, Mule," "Minglewood Blues," "Walk Right In", and many others.

Other Memphis area bands were Jack Kelly and His South Memphis Jug Band, Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band, and Noah Lewis's Jug Band. Ma Rainey's tub-jug band featured the first recordings of slide guitar performer Tampa Red, who later formed his own Hokum Jug Band. Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie cut a few sides each backed up by their own jug bands; Memphis Minnie also sang and played with The Memphis Jug Band.

The 1930s depression and the devastating effect of radio on record sales reduced the output of jug band music to a trickle. The last sides by Cannon and The Memphis Jug Band were from 1930 and 1934 respectively. Cannon and Will Shade were recorded again in 1956 by Sam Charters on a field trip for Folkways Records. The sound of the washboard and tub bass, however, lasted well into the 1940s as an integral part of the "Bluebird beat" in Chicago. Bukka White's "Fixin' to Die," recorded in Chicago in 1940, is driven by a syncopated washboard backup.