The Bloody Jug Band Is Not to be Overlooked
Orlando, FL’s The Bloody Jug Band released their latest record Stranded on Halloween, which is only appropriate for a band whose majority of material leans towards the macabre. As a dark roots outfit that takes the jug band concept of music and expands on it, it may seem a little too niche for your liking.
But you can also overlook this band as just a horror gimmick if you’re not careful, which would be to your detriment. Limited subject matter or not, their debut album Coffin Up Blood was nominated for Album of the Year at Saving Country Music in 2012 from the way they showed such alacrity for songwriting, melody, and composition in such a limited approach. Their new album Stranded does much of the same (read review).
And not all of their songs are solely appropriate for scary moments. A good example is the song “Lac du Flambeau” from their new album. Translating to “Lake of Fire” or
“Lake of the Torches,” the term also refers to an Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Bloody Jug Band frontman Cragmire Pearce and percussionist Baby Dingo were both born in Wisconsin before moving to Florida, and took a trip to the state a while back to rekindle their roots. Inspired by the somewhat hellish name and the things they encountered on their visit to the reservation, the song “Lac du Flambeau” was born.
The song really is the perfect example of why The Bloody Jug Band should not just be regarded as a Halloween band. When it comes to constructing songs, these guys do it better than most of the performers receiving national acclaim. And the guitar on the track is especially tasty.
“We actually named the album ‘Stranded’ because we thought it was never gonna come out,” Cragmire tells Saving Country Music. “3 years of production, multiple studios and a ton of hiccups and headaches, but we’re happy it is finally released. It was originally gonna be a 11 track album, but we cut it down to 6 because we couldn’t live with the rest. But, now that it is out, we plan to get back in the studio over the holidays and follow this up with more quality stuff from the BJB, since we’ve got a ton of great songs backlogged.”
November 5, 2020 @ 12:17 pm
Way cool on the BJBand.
Happy they are getting recognition.
Now can we talk about how RWHubbard killed it at his Austin City Limits Debut. ?
The guy freaking rocks, on multiple levels.
And the way his son was making love to his guitar, was smoking hot.
Hope RW lives many more years, but if not, would be kind of cool for him to see our appreciation, in writing, of his performance
November 5, 2020 @ 1:15 pm
Di,
I appreciate your enthusiasm for the Ray Wylie Hubbard Austin City Limits debut. I posted two separate articles on the matter, including an article with the debut itself embedded at the bottom. If you want to leave your appreciation, that would be the place to do it. It’s now been over two weeks since the debut, and it’s not available for people to view. So posting a review of it is just not something I’m going to do at this point.
November 5, 2020 @ 2:40 pm
Ok.
November 5, 2020 @ 5:38 pm
Love this band. Love the EP and great to hear they’re planning to get more new stuff out in the near future.
November 6, 2020 @ 7:23 am
On a day when there are not too many decent releases British husband and wife duo My Darling Clementine have released a new album. Titled Country Darkness. It is a cracker. Getting rave reviews in UK. Available on Bandcamp and Amazon. Will be in top ten albums of the year.
November 9, 2020 @ 5:52 am
And very good live.
November 9, 2020 @ 6:01 am
Yep. Pity they do not get better exposure. But they deserve great credit for releasing new album in current climate. It is a 13 song album. 12 of the songs are their versions of Elvis Costello songs.
December 9, 2020 @ 4:35 pm
Something about their delivery reminds me of Modest Mouse. A sort of churning controlled chaos. I like it.