The Blues Banjo: The styles: Jug band

Jug band

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This particular page was created 18/08/2003 and last updated 21/05/2005

Back in the 20's around Memphis, Tennessee. You grabbed whatever you could find that would make sound and started a band.

Sing into a big, empty jug and you got a lovely, throaty "wind instruments" sound.
A washtub, a broom handle and a clothesline - instant string bass!
Kazoos are cheap, fun and easy to find - and so are harmonicas
Of course you want a chord instrument too, but there must be somebody that owns a cheap guitar around.

But what about the banjo? Not as common as you might think perhaps, but Will Shade occasionally included a mandolin-banjo in his everchanging "Memphis Jug Band" line-up. And most of all, there was Gus Cannon, perhaps the most profilic banjoist in the history of the blues.