Seasons of the Ukulele

A weekly song challenge for ukulele players - all welcome. Find out more here

Season 755 - Jug Band Music

LimousinLil

And I have returned, with a song from 1929, which I have just found. I have a feeling that it's probably incredibly rude, but, if it is, then please excuse me because I really don't understand it. (I still can't find my kazoo, but I DID find my Swannee Whistle, although, as is perfectly obvious, I haven't got the faintest idea what to do with it.)

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

I really am enjoying this… and I learned lots of new songs, including this one. I play a 1920's Camp Uke, a 1920's Banjo Ukulele, a water bottle, and, because I couldn't find my kazoo, a homemade comb-kazoo. The Memphis Jug Band's "Stealin' Stealin' "

jon

a few i've played over the last couple of days…
"Beedle um Bum"

jon

"Blues in the Bottle"

jon

"It's Tight Like That"

jon

"There'll Be Some Changes Made"

jon

"Sweet Sue"

jon

two more great fun songs from Lemon and Val thank you folks!
and some awesome new weird and wonderful additions to the instrument tally
here at jug band central! the slide whistles are so much fun and just are perfect in setting
the right mood with some songs, accentuating the right moments,
especially the sorta risque type ones haha and Lemon's
home-made paper and comb kazoo is brilliant, tried to make one once and had absolutely
no idea what i was doing. plus he also brought another jug to the party and a real sweet ol banjo uke
thanks for the two fantastic songs you two…
also Abby the Spoon Lady, how cool she is. joo was showing me some of her videos the
other day, totally worth watching, she's amazing…can even play while she pours, stirs and drinks tea
all while eating a biscuit lol
on my part i went w/ the one-man band attempt on a couple of tunes and we can add some more
tambo and foot stompin, kazoo, whistlin and mouth trumpet plus a couple of other cool things -
a "rhythm ring", basically a little plastic cylinder that you strap on to yer finger so you get the
percussive shaker sound simply by default when you strum. got it from the Magic Fluke co. many many years
back, dunno if they still sell em but they're cheap and fun.
also, joojoo joined in on one of em w/ one of our little wooden percussive frogs
that you can tap like a snare drum or else run a stick over it's ridged back to get a washboard sound!
haha, hope everyone's having fun so far this week, i sure am,
and looking forward to what songs yet in store…
thank you all! 🙂

to our running tally…

kazoo - 6
paper & comb kazoo - 1
glass jug/plastic jug - 3
harmonica - 2
whistling - 2
cardboard box - 2
ukulele - 18
banjo ukulele - 2
jaw harp - 1
vintage Alfred Meakin teapot (lol) - 1
tambourine stomp - 3
footstomp - 3
keyboard - 1
washboard - 1
wooden frog - 1
spoon - 1
cooking pot - 1
cardboard trumpet - 1
slide whistle - 1
rhythm ring shaker - 1

CanadaJim

**Ukulele Lady - *Kahn and Whiting

I think I first heard this song on an Arlo Guthrie LP. but I have heard the Jim Kweskin Jug Band's version as well. Our Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band does this one as well.***

joo

hey Jona!

As you know I have not been recording for days now but then I heard that song on the Jim Hensen's Emmet Otter Jug-band Christmas and had to do something. You know I had difficulty trying to sing all those words quickly. I sort of gave up trying to get a nicer version but focused on some jug-blowing and scrub-brushing. But then I realised everything was not as cool as I liked them to sound but argh this will do! Fun to do this though! Thanks for hosting, sweetie!

I wore a cardigan that looks like Mama Otter's fur. haha. ALSO, please remember to wash that glass pitcher if you ever were to use it.

joo

A quick one before it gets completely dark here!

jon

haha, awesomeness happened from Jim and JooJoo while i wasn't looking…
one from a pit stop on my bike ride this arvo
"Somebody Stole My Gal"

YorkSteve

Oh a fine theme Jon. You've got me listening to some huge jug band CD sets that I bought many years ago (one is visible in the video). I have gone with a song which grew/changed over the years. The Memphis Jug Band and the Picaninny Jug Band both recorded it as "Bottle It Up And Go", both included on that CD set. Later on it was recorded by Tommy McLennan, Charlie Burse and his Memphis Mudcats, Blind Boy Fuller, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and no doubt many others, with the title changing to "Step it up and go", "Pack it up and go" and "Oil it up and go". I have taken the first few verses and chorus from the Picaninny Jug Band version, and the other verses from all over the place. And I have no idea what the chorus means.

jon

real nice blend of songs over the last day,
big thanks to Jim, Joo and Steve! loved Jim's gorgeous, lilting version of Ukulele Lady
then Joo brought out the ol' clothes brush haha and a glass jug and mouth trumpet and played
a ripper version of a song from our new favourite muppet film, just beautiful
as for the Rushad Eggleston song, i went to bed w/ it stuck in my head and woke
up the same way lol
Steve took a ripper shot at a fantastic ol hokum blues song complete w/ cigar box and whistlin
thank you awesome folks!
and the range of instruments grows along w/ our tally… 🙂

kazoo - 7
paper & comb kazoo - 1
glass jug/plastic jug - 4
harmonica - 2
whistling - 3
cardboard box - 2
ukulele - 22
banjo ukulele - 2
cigar box ukulele - 1
jaw harp - 1
vintage Alfred Meakin teapot (lol) - 1
tambourine stomp - 3
footstomp - 3
keyboard - 1
washboard - 1
wooden frog - 1
spoon - 1
cooking pot - 1
cardboard trumpet - 1
mouth trumpet - 2
slide whistle - 1
rhythm ring shaker - 2
clothes brush - 1

also just wanted to chip in -
if someone has already done a song you were planning to do,
please don't anyone feel you can't do it! in fact i'd encourage you to, the more versions the merrier!
it's great to see the different ways/angles folks approach songs and we enjoy them and learn
from each other. no-one owns a cover!
and -
if you've posted a new song this week, feel free to share an older
recording too, if it's in the spirit of the theme

thanks all, til tomorrow… 🙂

joo

hey Jona!

here is what I did when you went cycling. :--)

"Group Therapy" - a homemade song with:

original paintings based on real life folks, empty milk carton, 2 ukuleles and singing, a kanzoo (kazoo in a tin).

Words on youTube.

LimousinLil

And "hello" yet again! Something you did, Jon, reminded me that lots of Twenties songs could be performed in Jug Band style. I don't flatter myself that this has turned out as intended … it sounds more like something that Spike Jones and His City Slickers might have done on a VERY bad day! The drum roll at the beginning is because I had a pause I didn't realise was there until I'd added all the embellishments and it was too late to get rid of the gap without moving everything along. Apart from the drum roll, I used a Swannee Whistle, tin cans being dragged along the ground (or, alternatively, a turn from "Abby the Spoonlady"), some people saying "A-W-W" and an exploding bomb.

CanadaJim

GET A LOAD OF THIS - Cheap Suit Serenaders

The Cheap Suit Serenaders modified an old song in the seventies and I learned it from one of their LPs.

Aviva

"I Can't Give You Anything But Love"

Well, I had fun and made a joyful noise. My dog, Queenie decided to join in at about 3:00. I guess there was something about the toilet paper roll/wax paper "kazoo" that inspired her. I also played a grater in a metal bowl with a flea comb.

jon

well, it's official gang,
i've run out of lines on my writing pad for all the weird and wonderful and geniusly improvised
instruments all you folks are using lol. so awesome!!!
big thankies to JooJoo, Jim, Val and Aviva for the overdose of jugbandy goodness,
such fantastic songs all of 'em and special shout out to Joo for an amazing original layered
w/ meaning and to Aviva using a flea comb and a grater to make a brilliant washboard sound.
the 4 of you so creative in your arrangements of these songs just so much fun
and cool to listen to, thank you all and to Queenie the dog singin' for her supper!

ok, so the tally is nuts and i may have miscounted/forgotten stuff but whatever,
just check it out folks! we now have categories w/in categories haha
til tomorrow…
🙂

kazoo - 7
paper & comb kazoo - 1
canzoo - 1
toilet roll & wax paper kazoo - 1
KAZOO TALLY: 10

glass jug/plastic jug - 5
harmonica - 2
whistling - 3
jaw harp - 1
vintage Alfred Meakin teapot (lol) - 1
cardboard trumpet - 1
mouth trumpet - 2
slide whistle - 2
OTHER BLOWY STUFF TALLY: 17

ukulele - 27
banjo ukulele - 2
cigar box ukulele - 1
STRUMMY STUFF TALLY: 30

tambourine stomp - 3
footstomp - 3
washboard - 3
cardboard box - 2
rhythm ring shaker - 2
wooden frog - 1
spoon - 1
cooking pot - 1
clothes brush - 1
flea comb - 1
vegetable grater - 1
metal bowl - 1
PERCUSSIVE STUFF TALLY: 20

keyboard - 1
sound effects - 3
Queenie the Dog - 1
RANDOM RING-INS: 5

whew, i need a lie down 🙂

UkeCan1

Bonnie and I celebrated our (almost) shared birthday today at The Kenmore with current and past Brisbane City Sounds friends.

One of us is this many. I'll leave it as an exercise for the viewer to determine which of us that is.

L to R: Helen, Trish, Wendy + uke, Claire, Bonnie, Jannie.

Featuring Bonnie on various found table instruments for the jug band effect.

We might have tried some barbershop, but we were two baritones (the bday girls), two tenors, and two basses, with no leads.

"When I'm 64" by The Beatles

(PS, I sang this at my mom's request at her wedding to Jack, back when she was this many.)

Claire on the left, Jannie ("Yanni, rhymes with honey"), Bonnie, Helen, Trish on the right, and you know who in foreground taking the selfie.

The Kenmore, it turns out, offers free dessert or drink to birthday celebrants - Bonnie got the tiramisu, I got the ginger creme brulee, which was extraordinary, and Trish bought some raspberry sorbet (I'm hearing a Prince song we maybe should have sung…).

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