Shared Photo: Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers (Gus Cannon, Ashley Thompson, Noah Lewis)

Question

Have you ever heard of a jug band? I hadn't until today. A jug band has a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, jew's harp (I own one of these!), and comb and tissue paper. 

I wanted to share this photo of Gus Cannon and the Jug Stompers with the community. Date: ~1928. Gus popularized jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Comments

We relics of the 60's remember Jim Kweskin's Jug Band and the Lovin Spoonful hit "Jug Band Music'.

Answer 1

And I have a 3rd great grandfather, Johnson-111296, whose nickname was Jew's-Harp Johnson. I suspect the instrument was originally a jaw-harp, until anti-semitism took over.

Comments

Oh how fun. I imagine he got the nickname from playing the instrument. Which by the way isn't as easy to play as it looks! I never could get mine to sound like anything pleasant.

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Many of my Arkansas family played a juice harp...called that because your mouth dries out blowing on it.

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Oh I like that derivation much better!