The Even Dozen Jug Band

Category: Artist
Time period: Post-WWII

Date nominated: Apr 12, 2010
Date inducted: Sep 1, 2016
Ratings: 14
Average rating: 3.90

Your rating: Voting members only

Edit this page

During the urban folk revival, the combined accomplishments of a group of artists have generally been more significant than the later individual efforts of those involved. One of the exceptions to this commonplace phenomenon is the Even Dozen Jug Band. Although many talented musicians were brought together by its formation,its members proved to be less productive as components of this group than might have been expected, and the talent of its members was not fully developed until after they had gone their separate ways.
The Even Dozen Jug Band was formed by Stefan Grossman and the old-timey guitarist Peter Siegel. The group was organized for "fun", and it had a nucleus of about seven players and five to seven other friends who frequently joined in to make up a dozen or so participants. They recorded one LP for Elektra (which was released in January 1964); they made a couple of television appearances; and they performed several times in concert, twice at New York's Carnegie Hall.
Some of the Even Dozen Jug Band's members included Dave Grisman, producer and mandolinist who plays with many artists today; Stefan Grossman, virtuoso solo country blues and ragtime guitarist; Steve Katz, later with Blood, Sweat and Tears and the Blues Projekt, Maria Muldaur (at that time, Maria d'Amato), later with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and now a well known solo artist; Josh Rifkin, arranger of Scott Joplin fame; John Sebastian, later with the Lovin' Spoonful and now a solo artist; and Peter Siegel; later an A&R head (artist and repertoire producer) for Elektra Records and Polydor Records and now [1977!] head of ATV Record offices in the United States.
The group finally disbanded after disagreement over its status as primarily a professional or a "fun" band, which left its members divided down the middle over the issue."

Kristin Baggelaar & Donald Milton:
The Folk Music Encyclopedia.
London / New York / Sidney 1977




John Sebastian's comment on the above encyclopedia entry:
"Hi, John Sebastian here with a few corrections. The EDJB didn't form for fun. The real impetus was the fact that Paul Rothchild was interested in producing a jug band, and if we got it together, we could be it. Also the band didn't disband about disagreements. We had lost our lead singer to the Kweskin band, who were in fact much better, so there wasn't much to keep us going. Small stuff, but fun for detail freaks.
Best wishes, John Sebastian" (08/31/2007)

Photos

Personnel

Songs