Dixieland Jug Blowers

Category: Artist
Time period: Pre-WWII

Date nominated: Feb 26, 2010
Date inducted: Sep 1, 2011
Ratings: 21
Average rating: 4.15

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The Dixieland Jug Blowers was a loose affiliation of Louisville musicians that overlapped with the Old Southern Jug Band, Clifford?s Louisville Jug Band and Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band. As Sara Martin's backing band for "Blue Devil Blues," they become the first recorded jug band in 1924. On other recordings, jazz clarinetist Johnny Dodds joined jug virtuoso Earl McDonald and fiddler Clifford Hayes to create some of the most sophisticated jug band sounds ever recorded.

The common player in these configurations, Earl McDonald, started his first jug band as a teenager in 1902. As a young man, he performed on the street, at house parties and at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby. By 1914, he was travelling with his band to performances in New York and Chicago. Earl McDonald led the Ballard Chefs' weekly performances on Louisville's WHAS radio for three years (1929-1932). Public response exceeded expectations, enhancing the popularity of jug band music throughout the eastern half of the United States. Earl McDonald?s voice and the rhythm of his jug blowing enlivened the recordings of more than 40 tunes with a half-dozen bands from 1924 to 1931.

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