Jug Band Music

This artifact of the ’60s folk revival (and the band’s second album for Vanguard) is no less entertaining for its historical significance. In fact, it’s aged better than most folk and rock albums of the era. Kazoos are funny that way. So are songs by the band’s inspirational elders: Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers, and Blind Boy Fuller. The song by the band’s contemporary, Spider John Koerner of the folk-blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover, is pretty humorous, too. Whatever hipster coffeehouse audiences thought of Geoff Muldaur singing Chuck Berry, here’s betting they eventually wrote it off as just another joke. This import CD comes in a tiny cardboard reproduction of the LP’s original jacket, but no additional tunes or new notes have been included. No kidding. – Brian Beatty