The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses have a single string whose pitch is adjusted by pushing or pulling on a staff or stick to change the tension.
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, jew's harp, and comb and tissue paper. The term jug band is loosely used in referring to ensembles that also incorporate homemade instruments but that are more accurately called skiffle bands, spasm bands, or juke bands because they do not include a jug player.
Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from blues, jazz, and American folk music, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, it became extremely popular in the UK in the 1950s, where it was played by such artists as Lonnie Donegan, The Vipers Skiffle Group, Ken Colyer, and Chas McDevitt. Skiffle was a major part of the early careers of some musicians who later became prominent jazz, pop, blues, folk, and rock performers, The Beatles and Rory Gallagher amongst them. It has been seen as a critical stepping stone to the second British folk revival, the British blues boom, and the British Invasion of American popular music.
A bassline is the term used in many styles of music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic, traditional music, or classical music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, cello, tuba or keyboard.
The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late 1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, pop songs, humorous songs and upbeat dance numbers with jazz and string band flavors. The band made the first commercial recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded more sides than any other prewar jug band.
Jonathan Denis Langford is a Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Maria Muldaur is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and continues to record albums in the folk, blues, early jazz, gospel, country, and R&B traditions.
Robert "Robbie" Fulks is an American alternative country singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and long-time Chicago, Illinois resident. He has released 13 albums over a career spanning more than 30 years. His 2016 record Upland Stories was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album and the song "Alabama at Night" was nominated for a Grammy for Best American Roots Song.
The Windy City Strugglers are one of New Zealand's most enduring blues bands. Their music is based on the singing, songwriting, and guitar playing of Bill Lake, and the vocals of Rick Bryant. Their long-serving band members are Andrew Delahunty on guitar, harmonica and mandolin and on double bass Nick Bollinger who has a career as writer, critic and broadcaster and head of Red Rocks Records, the band's label. Their music is a unique amalgam of mostly black American styles, which has evolved into a personal expression combining the band's blues roots with a wide range of other historical and contemporary influences. Moving with ease from an acoustic format to a full electric lineup, the Strugglers are equally at home in a folk club, blues bar, or concert hall.
William Shade Jr., known as Will Shade, was a Memphis blues musician, best known for his leadership of the Memphis Jug Band. He was commonly called Son Brimmer, a nickname from his grandmother Annie Brimmer. The name apparently stuck when other members of the band noticed that the sun bothered him and he used the brim of a hat to shade his eyes.
Sally Timms is an English singer and lyricist. Timms is best known for her long involvement with The Mekons whom she joined in 1985.
Wee Hairy Beasties was a children's music group composed of Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, and Devil in a Woodpile. They played their first gig together at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, and released an album through Bloodshot Records in 2006 and another in 2008 on Wee Beatz Records.
Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions is an American folk music album. It was recorded live by the band of the same name at the Top of the Tangent coffee house in Palo Alto, California in July, 1964, and released in 1999.
Kelly Hogan is an American singer-songwriter, often known for her work as a member of Neko Case's backing band, as well as for her solo work.
Tom V. Ray is an American bassist living in Chicago. He was born in 1965, and grew up on a farm in Vincennes, Indiana.
"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a dirty blues song "that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues". The song was first released in 1941 by Mississippi bluesman Tommy McClennan and has since been interpreted by many blues artists. "Crosscut Saw" became an early R&B chart hit for Albert King, "who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues".
The Blacks were an insurgent country band from Chicago, IL. They released two albums through Bloodshot Records.
Jonas Friddle is a Chicago-based singer, songwriter, arranger, and banjo player; he also plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and several other instruments. His compositions have won awards, including "Belle De Louisville," which won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest award for Song of the Year for 2012. Friddle says he composed the song on the banjo which helps give it its rolling feel, appropriate for a song about a steamboat. Then in 2014, his song "Man Was Made To Fly" from the 2013 album, Use Your Voice, won the "Folk" category in the Great American Song Contest. That album was also nominated as Album of the Year for the Independent Music Awards. His original songs have been described as "a mixture of rock and old-time, New Orleans trad and bluegrass, country and blues."
Tuba Skinny is a traditional jazz street band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band's instrumentation includes cornet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, tenor banjo, guitar, frottoir, and vocals. The ensemble draws its inspiration from the early jazz, ragtime, and blues music of the 1920s and 1930s. The group began as an itinerant busking band and has performed around the world, including at music festivals in Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Spain.
The Cash Box Kings is an American blues band from Chicago, Illinois, United States, specializing in Chicago-style blues from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as Delta blues style music from the 1920s and 1930s.
