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Album Review: Hobo Nickel
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Jug Stompers’ first studio album reveals range of experience
By Brian McElhiney
Oct 2009
It ...Jug Stompers’ first studio album reveals range of experience
By Brian McElhiney
Oct 2009
It might seem surprising that the Ramblin Jug Stompers have only just released their first studio album.
But after all, we’re talking about a live band first and foremost — this is jug band music, made for pickin' on the front porch into the wee hours. Which is why "Hobo Nickel," recorded at Bender Studios in Delmar with Sten Isachsen, is such a successful studio debut, maintaining the high energy and humor that this band has staked its live reputation on throughout its concise 10 tracks. This is the band's second release, following 2006's live Caffe Lena document, "Crooked Songs," and it's a fitting follow-up.
The record is, first and foremost, plain old fun. You can hear the joy right from the opening acoustic guitar licks of the traditional "Mornin' Blues." From country ("Fix Me a Pallet") to quirky folk ("My Eggs Don’t Taste The Same Without You"), the Ramblin Jug Stompers tackle it all, putting their own unique stamp on each song.
While the approach is carefree, the musicianship is top notch, and one wouldn't expect any less. Banjoist Bowtie, guitarist Steven "Cousin" Clyde, mandolin and namesake jug player Mr. Eck and percussionist Wild Bill are all veterans of just about every genre imaginable on the Capital Region music scene, and it shows. (Remember Blotto, Rumdummies, The Lustre Kings or The Star-Spangled Washboard Band? And that's just scratching the surface of the group's collective resume).
The authentic, old-timey playing is wrapped in gorgeous modern-day production that, while lush, never overpowers the songs with too many studio tricks.
And while the set focuses on traditional numbers and eclectic covers including Jean Ritchie ("Blue Diamond Mines") and Jesse Fuller ("San Francisco Bay Blues"), it's the two instrumental originals — the title track and "Frypan Jack Enters Into Heaven" — that are the real testaments to this band's skill. The latter track, in particular, may be the album's shining moment — a shimmering pinched harmonic line that gives way to cascading banjo and mandolin lines plucked straight out of yesteryear.
And make sure you check out the "bonus" track: less than a minute of off-kilter vocals and kazoo that perfectly encapsulates this band’s goofball sensibilities.
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Album Review: Hobo Nickel
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by Michael Hochanadel
Oct 2009
The Ramblin Jug Stompers celebrate the release of their really f...by Michael Hochanadel
Oct 2009
The Ramblin Jug Stompers celebrate the release of their really fine and fun new album "Hobo Nickel" on Friday at the Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio in Albany.
With the album they sent me, they included a custom kazoo: an instrument anybody can play.
But that doesn't mean what they do is easy. Making music that sounds lighter than air, as this does, requires a deft touch. And they’ve sure got it. They also know how to put the "play" into playing music and they have the nerve to tackle "Down in the Boondocks" jug-band/Caribbean style. They learned both a Bach piece and an Eddie Vedder song to play a recent wedding in the Adirondacks. So, look out — you’ve been warned.
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Album Review: Hobo Nickel
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By David Malachowski
Oct. 2, 2009
With this, the second release from Albany's finest (albeit o...By David Malachowski
Oct. 2, 2009
With this, the second release from Albany's finest (albeit only) jug band, the Ramblin Jug Stompers take it up a notch in quality and conception. 2006's "Crooked Songs" was a live collection; the band and Sten Isachsen produced this studio outing with warmth and clarity.
The battling banjo, harmonica and kazoo in the intro are the musical equivalent of a sunny summer day (even though it’s a blues) and set the tone here.
The band has performed often in Woodstock and features Bowtie (banjo), Steven "Cousin" Clyde (guitar kazoo), Mr. Eck (mandolin, jug) and Wild Bill (washboard, harmonica, found objects). Two of them have been on MTV, a different two are well respected music journalists, another toured with Commander Cody. We'd tell you their real names, but we're sworn to secrecy.
Familiar tunes are given a fresh ramblin' spin, like "Down In the Boondocks," while "My Eggs Don't The Same Without You" has a sad, plaintive (plaintiff?) delivery. The gorgeous "Frypan Jack Enters Into Heaven" is near perfection, as is "Blue Diamond Mines" (with Mat Kane on fiddle), a haunting highlight.
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Press Quotes
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“These high spirited fellas have become something akin to a house band at Caffe Lena since first tre...“These high spirited fellas have become something akin to a house band at Caffe Lena since first treating us to their music in 2006. There’s simply nothing that clears away the cobwebs like four happy guys jamming on washboard, jug, banjo, guitar, kazoo, cracking crazy jokes and singing in four-part harmony. It’s an ear-to-ear smile party every time.”
-- Caffe Lena Newsletter
"The great thing about the Ramblin Jug Stompers - apart from the fact that they're arguably the region's only jug band - is that they're not stuffy or academic about their efforts to revive early American music. When they channel this century-old genre, not only is it pure fun, but it rolls early blues, jazz, folk and bluegrass into one."
-- Philip Schwartz, The Daily Gazette
"These guys are more than just versatile; they can play just about
anything, jugband style."
-- Michael Hochanadel, The Daily Gazette
"Old-school good times."
-- Metroland Magazine
"The funky ensemble provides high-spirited good times - and good music."
-- The Glens Falls Post Star
"An utterly unique brand of post-modern jug band music."
-- The Saratogian
"The Jug Stompers - Wild Bill, Bowtie, Cousin Clyde and Mr. Eck -
dispense timeless old-timey songs with a remarkably fresh approach.
The Stompers have quickly created a buzz musically."
-- David Malachowski, Chronogram Magazine
"A hot-on-the-music-scene jug band comprised of some players from the legendary '80s band Blotto, Ramblin Jug Stompers will surely be a not-to-be-missed highlight of the evening."
-- William R. DeVoe, Spotlight News
"With a nod to the great tradition of American string bands and a wink to the classic 60s jug bands, this funky ensemble provides high-spirited good times."
-- The Folk Times
"If you're looking for some serious fun, well, you just can't do better than the Ramblin Jug Stompers. Fun is their business, and this funky acoustic combo has learned it well."
-- Roger Houston, Chronogram magazine
"They tear through the Great American Underground Songbook."
-- Thomas Dimopoulos, The Saratogian
"One of the freshest musical groups in the area: Ramblin Jug Stompers, whose name offers only a hint of what this band is about."
-- Bob Goepfert, The Troy Record
"The wonderful Ramblin Jug Stompers are four guys who can scratch a washboard and blow a jug with the best of 'em. They play good, old-fashioned country blues, and I love it. It's great fun. I can't get enough."
-- Dr. Alan Chartock, president and CEO of WAMC Northeast Public Radio
***Best Jug Band 2007***
With all of the jug bands in the area this was a close one to call (ha ha). But one jug band stood head and shoulders (and jug) above the rest. For the members of Blotto who are in this band, this is a return to roots, as Blotto's origins are in '70s jug band the Star Spangled Washboard Band. RJS take their old-time DIY ethos seriously though, taking a cue from Dave Van Ronk's early '60s jug band the Ragtime Jug Stompers. So many jug bands, so little time . . .
-- Metroland Magazine July 19, 2007
"It’s rarely a good idea for a bunch of older musicians to get together and try to recapture the glory of their youth. But when that glory was something known as the Star Spangled Washboard Band, it makes perfect sense."
-- Metroland Magazine
"We'd present this band every weekend if we didn't have to leave room for everyone else we love."
-- Caffe Lena Newsletter
"('Crooked Songs') captures the magic of their last sold-out night on our stage."
-- The Caffe Lena Newsletter
"...not only can they play, but they can also entertain a crowd, and most of all, have fun the entire time."
-- David Malachowski, The Daily Freeman, Kingston, NY
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Washboard Charisma
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Washboard Charisma
The Ramblin Jug Stompers
by David Malachowski
October 29, 2007
On the thi...Washboard Charisma
The Ramblin Jug Stompers
by David Malachowski
October 29, 2007
On the third Monday of every month, the Ramblin Jug Stompers hold court in the cozy confines of the dining-room-cum-stage of Tess’ Lark Tavern, the old-school saloon in the heart of Albany’s Center Square. There, the Stompers—Wild Bill, Bowtie, Cousin Clyde, and Mr. Eck—dispense timeless old-timey songs with a remarkably fresh approach.
Who are these mysteriously nicknamed folks?
To anyone familiar with the Capital Region music scene, the Stompers’ stage names don’t do much to hide their prominence. Two of the foursome come from one of the most famous homegrown groups of the past 30 years, the renowned band of aliases, Blotto, whose infectious 1980 tune “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard” was on MTV the very first day the station aired, and went on to became a cult classic. Follow-up hit “Metal Head” scored on MTV too, and the band toured with Blue Oyster Cult. To Blotto faithful, the Stompers’ Wild Bill will always be lead singer Sarge Blotto, and Bowtie, guitarist and vocalist Bowtie Blotto.
Today, far from rock-star fame, all of the Stompers hold down day jobs. Wild Bill, when he isn’t wielding vocals, washboard, and harmonica, is Greg Haymes, longtime pop music writer for the Albany Times Union, and conceptual and installation artist G.C. Haymes. As Bowtie, Paul Jossman is the band’s banjo player, vocalist, and resident wise guy; by profession, he’s a computer programmer for MapInfo. Mr. Eck, holder of the jug (along with mandolin and dobro duties), is Michael Eck, a Times Union music and theater critic, and weekday host of “Performance Place” on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio. Eck, who started his musical life in the punk band The Plague, is a singer/songwriter with three solo albums. Finally, there’s guitar and kazoo aficionado Cousin Clyde—Steven Clyde, a computer programmer with his own long musical resume. He’s toured with Commander Cody, Richie Havens, and Eddie Angel, formed the Albany band Rumdummies, and plays bass at reunion gigs for—you guessed it—Blotto.
Haymes, Jossman, and Clyde go back more than 35 years, when they were founding members of the Star Spangled Washboard Band, an early precursor of today’s Jug Stompers. The Washboard Band, which Haymes describes as a “hippie electric comedy bluegrass jug band,” was itself an outgrowth of the 1960s jug-band revival led by Dave Van Ronk and Jim Kweskin. In the 1920s and ’30s, jug bands were rural combos that employed homemade instruments such as (besides the jug, of course) the washboard, washtub bass and gourd guitar. The Ramblin Jug Stompers (the first word of their name has no apostrophe) blend both original and revival styles into a strong cup of joe. Their website, www.jugstompers.com, describes the sound as “78 rpm music for the 21st century.”
The group performs as a true ensemble, with no designated frontman, though Bowtie does tend to introduce most of the songs. Each has his own persona: Eck is the multi-instrumentalist, Bowtie the clever quipster, Clyde the quiet one, Bill the ironic sage. All are willing and able onstage foils, depending on who’s doing the talking. Though less than two years old, the Stompers have quickly created a buzz musically. They’ve been in residency at the Lark Tavern since January 2006, and play often in the region and out. In addition to numerous small festivals, town libraries, and colleges, they’ve played Troy Music Hall, WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium, Tulipfest, Larkfest, and Club Helsinki, and often gig more than once in a week. Their live CD, Crooked Songs, was recorded last year at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs.
It was a brisk Monday night at the Lark Tavern when we sat on metal chairs on the sidewalk patio, watching a cop car’s flashing red lights pull someone over directly in front of us. Often the conversation strayed far from the questions, perhaps explaining why they’re called “ramblin.” The spirited exchange was punctuated by frequent interruptions, asides, and diversions, which began even before the first question was asked:
Bowtie: So the name of the band is Bowtie and the Jug Stompers.
David Malachowski (ignoring him): How did you guys get together, and why?
Wild Bill: It was Mr. Eck’s fault, actually.
Silence.
Wild Bill (looking at Mr. Eck with disappointment): When I throw you the set up, you take it! It’s the folksingers’ code!
Mr. Eck: I was hired to produce a Dave Van Ronk tribute [in 2005]. I wanted to pay tribute to the Ragtime Jug Stompers album, which Van Ronk put out in ’63—it was the most punk-rock record you could imagine in jug band music. I thought “who better for a jug band than these guys,” so I called up Wild Bill and said, “Do you think Bowtie would be down with this?” and once they were on board, I said, “What about Cousin Clyde?” That [Van Ronk] show got canceled, [but] we had already booked an art carnival. We had so much fun at that gig that we proceeded.
DM: Some of you have a history of being in other jug bands, don’t you?
Wild Bill: The three of us [gestures to Bowtie and Cousin Clyde] were original members of the Star Spangled Washboard Band.
Bowtie: The famous Star Spangled Washboard Band. It was 1971 when we started.
Mr. Eck: I’d like to point out that I was six.
Bowtie: We auditioned for a gig at Gaslight Village [in Lake George, New York] and decided to change our name from the Blue Jug Grass Band, to something more likely to win favor with Charlie Wood [the owner of the venue].
Cousin Clyde: ’Cause we had a washboard spangled with stars.
Wild Bill: I do believe that we never called ourselves the Blue Jug Grass Band. It was a name under consideration. We thought perhaps it would not play to mainstream Lake George vacationers. So we sold out.
Bowtie: Of course. Whatever it took to play Gaslight Village. Six days a week, four gigs a day.
Wild Bill: We also got to play at the Tiki Lounge with Hurricane Hattie, and Frontier Town, with Wild Windy Bill McKay—Lake George legends.
DM: That wasn’t your only brush with history. Later, you were on the Mike Douglas television show. What happened there?
Wild Bill: Bowtie—this forever will be his moment in show-biz history—kissed Phyllis Diller on national television.
Bowtie: Yes, I did!
Wild Bill: She was wearing a grass skirt and playing a ukulele, and doing the hula as we performed “Ukulele Lady.”
Bowtie: I was singing the song, and Wild Bill and Broadway [Blotto] are singing background, and I was singing “and lips were meant to kiss,” so I look over at Phyllis Diller and give her the showbiz “get ready,” and I go over and she comes in...dry kiss.
Mr. Eck: No tongue?
Bowtie: No. But it was beautiful.
DM: Where did it go from there?
Mr. Eck: To sitting in front of the Lark Tavern!
Bowtie: We’re not talking about the Jug Stompers.
DM: We are now. You’ve seemed to have developed quite a scene. The place is packed, folks come and jam, spontaneity happens. Are you surprised at the success?
Wild Bill: Wait a minute—we’re successful?
Bowtie: People are naturally attracted to a washboard; it’s a magnetic kind of thing.
Wild Bill: You could put magnets on it, kinda like a refrigerator.
Cousin Clyde: First of all, the Lark Tavern is an ideally suited place to perform—lights, an elevated stage.
Mr. Eck: Even more important than that, Tess has created an atmosphere here for things like this to happen, things that have a bit of funkiness to them, a little bit of vibe.
Bowtie: We’ve invited a lot of friends to come sit in, and tried to create an open forum.
Mr. Eck: This is our laboratory.
Bowtie: We’ve had a lot of people sit in with us—you included, Malachowski. Kevin McKrell, Jim Gaudet, Rick Bedrosian, Luke McNamee, Eddie Angel, Frank Jaklitsch, Half-Naked, Almost Awake, Jill Stevenson, Ed Atkeson,
Ryder Cooley, Sarah Pedinotti.
Wild Bill: Actually we have a full page on our website which we call the Medal of Valor. If you step onstage with us, you’re hardy enough for the Medal of Valor.
DM: Between your jamming and all, there seems to be a lot of generosity going on—where you are encouraging others—and interaction, which doesn’t happen as much as it should.
Bowtie: If I may speak.
Mr. Eck: If you may stop! (Laughs.)
Wild Bill: Biggest laugh of the night!
Bowtie (resuming): We like to help the younger folks come up.
Mr. Eck: They’re all younger than Bowtie.
Wild Bill: That includes everyone ...
Mr. Eck: ... even Pete Seeger.
Cousin Clyde: It’s an opportunity to continue to learn more, and bounce ideas off people. It’s a very creative situation.
Bowtie: It creates community. I guess we’re not as cutthroat, step-on-everybody-on-the-way-up as—I used to be! (Laughs.)
DM: Often folks want attention and accolades, but don’t support others. Here, there seems to be encouragement and interaction. When someone sits in with you, they instantly become an honorary Jug Stomper.
Mr. Eck: That’s really part and parcel of what jug-band music always was, very inclusive, do-it-yourself. It was music anybody could play. There are all these examples of people saying, “If you get too good, it’s not really jug-band music.”
Wild Bill: It’s a jug band—by definition, it’s loose. Whoever joins in has got to become part of the band. The concept of bringing special guests up here at Tess’s is not so much to do a showcase, but to do a number or two and have us back them up, and then have them join in on a number or two of what we do. That’s the raison d’être of what we’re doing here.
Mr. Eck: And ideally, from the first note, the audience is part of the band.
Wild Bill: It’s like the audience is an equal part of this band.
Bowtie: That’s an interesting observation. I guess we envelop them.
Mr. Eck: It’s very inclusive. It’s meant to be fun, and none of the tunes we’re playing are rocket science.
DM: So what’s your favorite part?
Cousin Clyde: The groove. It’s a good groove. It’s not forced.
Wild Bill: The thing about playing with these guys [is], a lot of times I don’t think of it as a band as much as a social club. These are guys I love to hang out with.
Mr. Eck: I spent the majority of the past two decades performing, and now I’m entertaining. It took me awhile to come around to that. I’m really enjoying entertaining people, and doing it with these guys is a really good place to be. To have it be this much fun is just crazy.
Bowtie: We’re more about entertaining than making an artistic statement fraught with meaning.
Wild Bill: I disagree. I think laughter and joy is an important musical message.
All (impressed): WHOA!!
Mr. Eck: As I’ve become older, that’s what I most want out of music.
Wild Bill: The late Jackie Alper, of WRPI’s “Mostly Folk” show, once said she was thrilled that folk music was still viable in the 21st century, and that the act of singing an honest song was a political statement.
Bowtie: I want to play acoustic music now; this is the way I want to go out. Playing roots music. I want to become a legend, and so old that I have to play sitting down.
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An American Band
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***Ramblin’ Jug Stompers return to their own roots to bring back some old-time roots music***
T...
***Ramblin’ Jug Stompers return to their own roots to bring back some old-time roots music***
This is where it begins, this is where it continues, but this is not where it ends. I am sitting in an Albany attic among the creative clutter of albums, instruments, and a bottle or two of spirits with the Ramblin’ Jug Stompers. Through these musicians, I am also in the presence of more local-music history than one has a right to be.
Well, there are actually two histories here, sort of entwined around each other: There is the history of Albany music, but there is also the history of American music itself. And sometimes it takes a jug band to bring you back to that primeval place when categories didn’t matter, when the spirit of the tunes seemed to have been carved out of the most basic elements: earth, air, fire, water, heart muscle and humanity.
But this is also fun, you see. When the Ramblin’ Jug Stompers play Caffé Lena, ticket buyers aren’t necessarily out for a history lesson; they are there to plug into the vital, basic spirit of songs that moved Americans before terms like “bluegrass,” “country” or “folk” parsed out territories within the music and mutated off into distinct strains. When people banged out tales of humanity on washboard, banjo and, yes, jug.
The Jug Stompers consist of members of Albany ’80s new-wave legends and nascent MTV stars Blotto: in this case “Wild Bill” (aka Sarge Blotto, aka Times Union columnist- critic Greg Haymes) and “Bowtie” (aka Bowtie Blotto). Also on board is Steven “Cousin” Clyde—who has made his name playing with Richie Havens, Commander Cody and with the current Blotto incarnation, to name a few—and Michael Eck (“Mr. Eck”), who has been somewhat of a Zelig on the Albany scene for three decades as a punk rocker, singer-songwriter, critic, painter and frequent supporter.
So there’s that: a lot of local lore in one room and the kind of beatific, relaxed atmosphere that comes with sitting around in a cluttered rehearsal space with a bunch of seasoned musicians who don’t need to prove anything.
But how the hell did they all end up together, and in a jug band, of all things? “It was very . . . unintentional,” laughs Bowtie. Eck points more specifically to a benefit he was putting together last year for folk legend Dave Van Ronk, whose own Ragtime Jug Stompers in the early ’60s provided a template: “There’s a manifesto on the back of that record that says, ‘Go start your own jug band.’ It’s so DYI and punk rock.”
The group also point to the continued appeal of old-timey string-band music. “It’s just resonating because it’s part of the collective bedrock of all pop music,” says Clyde. “This is where it all came from. The [chord] progressions are recognizable and the lyrics and stories are understandable.” Wild Bill adds, “The music itself is such a . . . mélange of styles. It’s country, it’s blues, it’s jazz, it’s folk. And it all came together to become the pop music of its day.”
“It’s real American music, in my mind. I think the lo-tech nature of it [is appealing],” banjo man Bowtie says. Wild Bill (resident washboard, harmonica, and kazoo player) agrees: “Like Mike [Eck] was saying too, it’s very much got the same DYI ethos of all the punk bands. You don’t need to go out and buy a $2,000 guitar and amp to play this kind of music. You go to the hardware store and buy a washboard for 10 bucks . . . or $9.99,” he cracks.
But Eck also cautions against lumping the group in with the rest of the post-O Brother, Where Art Thou bands who leaped that old-time bandwagon a few years back. “All of us in one way or another—even though I come from a very different background—have played this music before it’s come around again. Now it’s back again with all of the string bands: Yonder Mountain String Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, etc., etc., etc.”
Eck’s point also dredges up some local history and the very early genesis of the Ramblin’ Jug Stompers: Back in the early ’70s Bowtie, Clyde and Wild Bill were in the Star-Spangled Washboard Band, a humor-oriented acoustic jug group who gained a following on the East Coast and appeared twice on The Michael Douglas Show before going electric and eventually morphing into Blotto. (As if the story doesn’t have enough quirks: Bowtie and Wild Bill were also in a mime troupe together.)
So consider that old unit a sort of version 1.0 of the current band, who recently released a live CD (recorded at Caffe Lena), Crooked Songs. The album pops with the room fidelity of Lena and contains lots of Depression-era varnish, fleshed out with vocal harmonies, banjo, washboard, mandolin, kazoo, etc.
The choice to debut with a live album came together “the same way the band came together. It was completely by accident,” Bowtie remembers. They were planning on having the gig recorded primarily for their own edification, but were so pleased with the results that they decided to release it. Claims Wild Bill, “The show that’s on the album is only the fourth show we’ve ever played.”
Besides such public domain as “Midnight Special” are tunes like the reggae standard “The Harder They Come” and the Faces’ “Ooh La La.” But the emphasis is on traditional music of earlier times.
“Bowtie doesn’t want to do any songs written after the ’40s . . . the 1840s,” Wild Bill cracks. “He’s the keeper of the tradition.”
Eck adds, “The concept Wild Bill and I had of doing a Brian Eno night has gone by the wayside.” In seemingly all seriousness, Wild Bill points out, “That was an idea I actually had for this band at one point. And I thought, well, that’s not going to happen obviously.”
“Bowtie is cruel but fair,” reasons Clyde. Bowtie, who actually radiates Buddha-like benevolence, says in his own defense, “This is a discussion we have frequently. . . . Some bands say they’re ‘eclectic,’ which by my measure often means that they’re too lazy to actually to settle on a vision.”
Part of the Stompers’ personal vision involves what Wild Bill terms “Stomperizing” tunes that are added to the set list. The group also tries to slightly slow down songs that have that bluegrassy, breakneck pace to add more of what Clyde (the resident music theorist) calls a “ramblin’ feel. . . . If you go too fast, it sounds mechanical. In the old Washboard band I remember feeling that this thing was going down the road too fast and some stuff was being lost with some of the bluegrass tunes. We’re talking, just pull it back a tiny bit so that it fits in a certain pocket. That’s what we call ramblin’ speed.”
Bowtie adds that early (pre-’40s, obviously) country music, such as Dock Boggs, was a bit slower before the bluegrass guys “got a hold of it and sped it” in order to show their chops. Clyde also explains that the title of the band’s CD (Crooked Songs) also has a technical connotation. The mountain term “crooked” was applied to tunes that had irregular rather than typical cadences. “They’re songs that don’t fit into that same basic pattern,” Wild Bill says.
As to what keeps the veteran musicians still trying new things such as this venture after all of these years, Bowtie explains, “This is certainly not to prove anything. . . . I love to play, I love to be out doing this. I’d rather play acoustic than electric. With the Blotto thing, we’ll still play gigs electric but I don’t think that’s a direction I want to invest in. I want to get back to what I sort of consider my roots.”
“It’s just fun,” Wild Bill exclaims. “For me there’s really no other reason than it’s . . . just . . . fun. These are guys I love, and I’ve loved playing with them for years. I’ve known these guys for 36 years and [Eck] for like 20 years.” (“Not steadily,” jokes Bowtie.)
Bowtie remembers that Alan Chartock recently asked him, on a WAMC radio show, if he had to choose between music and his day job, what would he do? “There’s no choice. I’d do it full time if I could, like that,” he says, snapping his fingers in the air.
At the end of the night, Eck kindly offers me to choose a painting from a box of folk art he rendered on small slabs of press board. The piece I choose is a simple, black outline of a guitar against a bright indigo background. Around the instrument are squiggly lines of red and yellow, as if the instrument is resonating, as if it’s radiating energy. It occurrs to me as I walk to the car that the painting probably says more about the Ramblin’ Jug Stompers than I ever could.
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Album Review: Crooked Songs
[+ Show ]
***Recorded live at the prestigious Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, the Albany-based Ramblin Jug S...
***Recorded live at the prestigious Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, the Albany-based Ramblin Jug Stompers bring things back to basics with their debut CD "Crooked Songs."***
This isn't just a clever name they dreamed up, they actually do have someone who plays a jug and a kazoo and a washboard and even a saw. Yes, they're a politically correct and environmentally conscious band; no electricity is burned in the performance of these 12 songs.
Certain members of this group were in Blotto, the early MTV stars. Others have national credits as well (the Star Spangled Washboard Band, the Neanderthals, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen), and all of them have funny names: Bowtie (banjo, vocals), Cousin Clyde (guitar, kazoo, vocals), Mr. Eck (mandolin, dobro, jug, vocals) and Wild Bill (washboard, harmonica, kazoo, vocals).
And you thought I was kidding?
Kicking things off with "The Midnight Special," you can just feel the audience adoring them (and hear them singing along). A banjo makes an appearance in "Hello Hello" and a jug in "Jug Band Music." "Cripple Creek" would make Levon Helm and The Band proud, while "Ooh La La" has a plaintive yet earnest delivery by Mr. Eck, a sure highlight. A joyful take on reggae warhorse "The Harder They Come" shows they can tackle almost any genre and make it their own.
This crew can be serious and silly in the same song, and this live recording shows that not only can they play, but they can also entertain a crowd, and most of all, have fun the entire time.
This record is available via their Web site (www.jugstompers.com), and besides playing various venues on the East Coast, Ramblin Jug Stompers have a residency at Tess' Lark Tavern in Albany every third Monday of the month.
Grab your jugs and kazoos and join in!
--David Malachowski, The Daily Freeman, Kingston, NY, March 2, 2007
supersonic
