Partxent CD-131 Razz'm Jazz'm

Are You Ready, Hezzy?

Many folks brush up against something like this music when they are in first grade; you know, the triangle, flute, drum pad bands. And then again when they join the senior citizens kazoo band, but never anything in between. We aim in our lives to correct that omission and, at the same time, to keep the tradition. Washboard/jug (or skiffle or spasm) band music by now has a long and glorious history in American music (as well as a somewhat ignominious history in minstrelsy). The broad category of bands using “found” instruments includes plantation music, rural and streetcorner jug bands, and 1920s jazz washboard bands. Emile “Stalebread” Lacoume's turn of the century New Orleans spasm band, the Washboard Rhythm Kings, Spike Jones, Dave Van Ronk, Jim Kweskin, the Memphis Jug Band, and the Hoosier Hotshots are just a few of the better known manifestations