Thursday, September 13, 7p
Veteran’s Memorial Park
Main Street and Railroad Avenue
Stamford NY
Free, donations welcome
Sponsored by Margaretville Telephone Company
Celebrating its first decade, Ramblin Jug Stompers play 78 rpm Music for the 21st century.
The popular Albany NY jug band “Stomperizes” every song it touches, pulling the beat back to “ramblin speed” and adding comic flourishes, sharp musicianship and Spike Jones-like looniness to each tune it plays—whether from the songbag of Roger Miller, The Memphis Jug Band, Louis Armstrong or Doc Watson.
The quartet traces its roots directly to the legendary Star Spangled Washboard Band and early MTV stars Blotto, and echoes those groups’ unique, brilliant combination of hot playing and tongue-in-cheek humor.
The Washboard Band’s Flying Fish debut, Collectors Item, received a rare four and a half star rating from All Music Guide, and Blotto’s “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard” and “Metalhead” remain eternal 80s classics.
Ramblin Jug Stompers are represented with two albums, the live set Crooked Songs, recorded at the legendary Caffe Lena, and the studio disc Hobo Nickel. The all-star combo is also featured, with its funky American string band take of Uncle Dave Macon’s “Old Plank Road,” on the compilation “Jugs Across America.”
Ramblin Jug Stompers are a favorite at nightclubs, festivals, colleges and concert venues, including: The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Caffè Lena, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, Berkshire Harvest Festival, First Night Saratoga, Albany Tulip Festival, Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic University, Club Helsinki, The Kirkland Arts Center, The Howland Cultural Center, The Egg and The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) among others.
Band members Bowtie (banjo, vocals), Cousin Clyde (guitar, vocals, 2nd lead kazoo), Mr. Eck (mandolin, vocals, jug, jaw harp, ukulele, tenor banjo, dobro) and Wild Bill (washboard, vocals, harmonica, kazoo, nose flute) have uniquely accomplished musical careers spanning decades that combine to make one heck of a show.