Devine's Jug Band 
There's divine madness in the rigorous method of Devine's Jug Band, the agile San Francisco combo that's breathing new life into the signature sound of the weird old America. Led by jug master Pete Devine, who earned his old-time music spurs as drummer in the revered ragtime band Bo Grumpus, DJB explores a treasure trove of mostly forgotten, pre-World War II era songs on the band's dazzling debut release Terrible Operation Blues.

Featuring fiddler/vocalist Mayumi Urgino, guitarist/vocalist Meredith Axelrod and a rotating cast of string experts including Bill Foss and Jacob Groopman on banjo and mandolin, the DJB brings a bracing jolt of contemporary energy to an irresistibly syncopated program of salty blues, sassy stomps, and raucous rags. This is party music for hard times, which is to say it sounds more relevant than ever.

The band gleans its repertoire from the early 20th century, a protean age of American music when performers borrowed liberally across stylistic and racial lines that seem hard-wired today. The wondrously gruesome title track is by blues great Georgia Tom, who went on to pioneer gospel music under his real name Thomas A. Dorsey.

The seminal African-American songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, who first brought the blues to Broadway, contribute "Low Down Blues," while Delta blues string wizard Papa Charlie McCoy is represented by the playful lament "Too Long." He also provides the inspiration for the DJB's romping arrangement of boogie woogie pianist Cow Cow Davenport's "Jackson Stomp (Cow Cow Blues)," which McCoy recorded in a classic early '30s session with the impromptu combo the Mississippi Mud Steppers.

From Martin's Melody Makers' "The Donald Rag" and the Dallas String Band's "The Dallas Rag" to Will Shade and the Memphis Jug Band's "Fourth Street Mess Around" and "The Lindberg Hop (Overseas Stomp)," the DJB pays loving attention to the original recordings, using the vintage jug and string band sound as the foundation for their savvy interpretations.

"We start by listening to the original recording of the song," says Devine. "Is it a fiddle tune, a hot tune, a slow drag? Is it something our band would feel comfortable playing? We're always looking for how we can put our own style into it. One of the differences between us and other bands is that we try to get the instrumentation right. That's why we've got a nice authentic sound. I've learned more from listening to the original recordings than practicing. A lot of jazz and blues guys don't do that."

He's probably best known as a founding member of the ragtime string band Bo Grumpus, a group that brilliantly revitalized the music that paved the way for jazz. Devine also helped launch the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, who have long backed the sassy chanteuse Lavay Smith, and presently provides expert rhythmic support for trombonist Mal Sharpe's Big Money In Jazz Band and crisp trap set work in the Gypsy jazz ensemble Gaucho.

His passion for early 20th century music was sparked by his grandmother, who turned him onto the giddily virtuosic sounds of Spike Jones and Louis Armstrong. While he played in a punk band as a teenager, Devine focused much of his attention on the high school jazz band. He experienced a life-changing epiphany when he discovered a double album of late-1920s and early 30s recordings by the Memphis Jug Band, an informal collective of African-American musicians led by Will Shade.

"The music just floored me," Devine says. "I was mesmerized, and all I could do was stare at the record in disbelief. That night was pretty magical. It really had a lasting effect, and for the last 20 years I've always wanted to have a jug band. There are some great bands out there, but most of the jug bands I've seen don't seem to take the music seriously."

Devine's long time ambition came to fruition on break during a Gaucho gig at the San Francisco Mission District nightspot Amnesia in 2007, when banjo player Bill Foss suggested that they launch a jug band. They didn't really know each other, but Foss told Devine to pick the players, and the next day he had assembled a five-piece combo including Mayumi Urgino, who happened to be at Amnesia that night playing fiddle with the Japanese country western singer Toshio Hirano.

"I liked the way she plays and her tone," Devine says. "She also beautiful and great to work with, which doesn't hurt either. Mayumi didn't really play this music, but she's a quick study. It's hard to find a good fiddle player who really plays this stuff. She's a classically trained violinist, but she's very good at the old timey music and has really come along with the early jazz and blues."

Within months, the band had become a creative force, as Devine organized the 2007 San Francisco Jug Band Festival and landed high profile gigs on NPR's "West Coast Live." The personnel has evolved over the past two years, and the crucial addition was Meredith Axelrod on guitar and vocals.

"She's a national treasure," Devine says. "She's got a great voice and stage presence. She's played piano all her life, and guitar is a more recent instrument for her but she sounds like she's been playing for decades."

Devine had played jug since his first fascination with the Memphis Jug Band, but creating his own combo meant getting his jug chops in top shape. Adept at creating the instrument's trademark hollow, buzzy, sliding sound, he has turned the humble jug into a truly expressive musical vehicle.

"It was totally trial and error," Devine says. "It took me a little while to figure it out. It's a weird combination of blowing and buzzing your lips. The jug just amplifies what you're playing, like a resonator, and the sound really comes from your mouth and lips."

While the DJB may be sparking the second great jug band revival, Devine draws little or no inspiration from the first jug band renaissance. In the early 1960s the Bay Area, Boston and Greenwich Village were ground zero for jug band aficionados, who were part of the larger folk music revival. Today, groups like Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions from Palo Alto and Boston's Jim Kweskin Jug Band are better remembered for launching the careers of the Grateful Dead, David Grisman, Maria Muldaur and Geoff Muldaur than for original recordings.

Devine skipped over the folk revival and returned to the source. An evangelist for this often overlooked musical form, he hopes to turn people onto the jug and string band sounds of the 1920s and 30s, a time when artists responded directly to their communities and fellow players, creating music that offered entertainment, succor and hope when hard times pressed down hard.

"The sound is so good and so pure," Devine says. "The appeal is the freshness and trueness of it. It was folk music played by ordinary people without any conceit. You put on the Dallas String Band, or the Hokum Boys, and it's happy music for dancing. The melodies and the rhythms are great. You take a slow Skip James blues and some people think it's morbid and depressing. But playing and listening to the blues is like having a therapist. You feel better. And that's what this music is all about." A humble slice of Americana gets a bracing jolt of contemporary energy with Terrible Operation Blues, the dazzling debut of Devine's Jug Band, a San Francisco ensemble wise to the ways of the weird old Southwest. Launched by vocalist and jug master Pete Devine, who earned his old-time stripes as drummer in the revered ragtime band Bo Grumpus, DJB features fiddler/vocalist Mayumi Urgino, guitarist/vocalist Meredith Axelrod and a rotating cast of string experts on a program of salty blues, sassy stomps, and raucous rags. This is party music for hard times, which is to say it sounds more relevant than ever.


The Band: 
Pete Devine - jug, voice, washboard, Cheek-O-Phone (TM)
Meredith Axelrod - voice, guitar
Mayumi Urgino - voice, fiddle
Jacob Groopman - banjo-mandolin
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 Live: 10/29/2009 (2:00:00)
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