Celebrate Jug Band Music!

Got a spasm? A case of the skiffle? Does your jook or your hokum need tweaking? If so, then The California Jug Band Association is here to cure what ails you, for the doctor said ‘Give them jug band music.’

Once a year, the California Jug Band Association welcomes the Bay Area public to celebrate and explore the original American musical form of jug band music. This year’s 2009 San Francisco Jug Band Festival is a three-day affair that includes a full day of music at the Bandshell in Golden Gate Park on Saturday August 15, a multimedia presentation at the San Francisco Public Library on Sunday August 16, and two more evenings of live music on Sunday the 16th and Monday the 17th at Amnesia.

Jug band music is a unique American musical style that developed in Louisville and Memphis at the turn of the 20th century. Jug bands consist of instruments like harmonica, kazoo, banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, washboard, washtub bass, and the eponymous jug (of glass or stoneware). The jug player blows across the aperture often providing a bass ostinato.

Jug Band Music: Certainly Is A Treat To Me! will be presented in the Main Library's Koret Auditorium from 1-4 PM on Sunday, August 16, 2009. The program is supported by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. All programs at the Library are free.