We are dishing up Nice and Naughty for our December concert. The How Long Jug Band has been performing traditional blues, jazz and ragtime music in Portland, Oregon for five years. While they sometimes take inspiration from current bands, or bands from the 1960’s folk revival, they learn most of their material from recordings of the great jug bands of the 1920’s and 30’s, digging into the most obscure songs to find arrangements and jokes too good to be forgotten.Instrumentation includes guitar, fiddle, washboard, harmonica, kazoo and yes, they really do play the jug.

     The Smut City Jellyroll Society is a wild and crazy bunch of fun loving musicians playing blues and early jazz from the 1920’s and 1930’s. With a unique sound somewhere between ragtime blues, early jazz and jugband music, the Jellyroll Society keeps it loose and lively with a driving syncopated swing. The music is from a variety of sources: Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, The Harlem Hamfats, Memphis Jug Band, Blind Boy Fuller and others. The Society also has a couple of original tunes in the repertoire with more on the way. The lyrics are fun and a bit on the risqué side.