We not only have no one 'tradition' to try to be faithful to, but for much of what we play, we don't know if we even have tradition to be concerned with. We can do almost anything we want.
– Jim Kweskin on his group's departure from the 1930s jug band tradition[7]
Maria Muldaur (néeMaria D'Amato), formerly with the Even Dozen Jug Band, and the soon the wife of Geoff Muldaur, joined the band in 1963.[1] They played The Newport Folk Festival five years in a row 1964-1968 and during their 5 years together as a band, they successfully modernized the sounds of pre–World War II rural music.[8]
The Jug Band released six albums and two greatest hits compilations on Vanguard Records between 1963 and 1970. As a solo act and with other combinations of musicians, Kweskin released Jim Kweskin's America on Reprise Records in 1971 and four albums on Mountain Railroad Records between 1978 and 1987.[9][10] He has continued to release albums into the 2010s.
Kweskin is most often recognized as a singer and bandleader, but he is also known for his guitar stylings, adapting the ragtime-blues fingerpicking of artists like Blind Boy Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt, while incorporating more sophisticated jazz and blues stylings into the mix. In 2013, the band held a reunion tour that included Jim Kweskin, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Richard Greene, Bill Keith, Cindy Cashdollar and Sam Bevan, most of whom were amongst its original members.
In the late 1960s, Kweskin joined the Fort Hill Community, which was founded by former Kweskin Jug Band harmonicist Mel Lyman in Boston. In the 1970s, Kweskin recorded some vocals for some Sesame Street inserts, most notably, "Ladybugs' Picnic".[11][12]In the 1980s, he stopped recording and performing regularly to devote himself to building houses.[13] The Fort Hill Community evolved into the Los Angeles–based Fort Hill Construction, of which Kweskin was a founding partner and where he works as vice president.[14]
In the 21st century, he resumed making music, including tours and recordings with Geoff Muldaur, Meredith Axelrod, and Samoa Wilson.[15][2] In 2024, he released Never Too Late: Duets with My Friends featuring duets with friends including one with Maria Muldaur.[16][17] In 2025, he released Jim Kweskin & The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue, ‘Doing Things Right.[18][19]
Further reading
Eric Von Schmidt and Jim Rooney, Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years, 1979, ISBN978-0870239250 (out of print)
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