Jim Kweskin

Presented by: Paul and Ashley

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0	BRIGHTON: The Greys
P	Sunday 29th January, 2017
N	8:30pm

Event information

terrace cred. presents:

Now, tonight's date is certainly out of the ordinary (not that terrace cred. does 'ordinary'). It's a one off performance, at the request of one of the most influential figures in American folk roots. Without Jim Kweskin, there'd've been no Lovin' Spoonful. A bunch of San Francisco musicians began playing jug band music and morphed into The Grateful Dead. That's a measure of the influence of founder Jim Kweskin and The Jug Band in the earliest '60's.
Based in Cambridge Massachusetts, on the Vanguard record label, this chap and his musicians, including Geoff Muldaur (who returned to The Greys 18 months ago, after too long a gap) and Maria Muldaur, pitched in as just about the first roots 'Americana' outfit. Spirited, not an exercise in nostalgia, their keen love of long-forgotten recordings and technical skill revitalised blues, ragtime and hillbilly country with fresh playing, youthful exuberance and a jazz swing. They not so much captured the essence of the 60's but helped forge it.
Breaking up the band after 5 years, signing to Reprise and on the verge of yet greater success, Kweskin's history continued to be intriguing, including The Forthill Community and house building. Having returned to performing and recording, his mix of finger picking, ragtime guitar styles, with traces of Mississippi John Hurt and Blind Boy Fuller and that jazz sensibility melding with his expressive voice, Jim Kweskin now shows no signs of stopping. In 2015 he reunited members of The Jug Band for successful dates and performs with various combinations of these and other players, including the Muldaurs and Happy Traum.
Jim Kweskin will be over here, mixing his new album on Hornbeam Recordings - the label that has issued the recent albums by the iconic Tom Paley. And it's through that connection, with the help of local Ben Paley, that I'm so pleased that we've been able to attract Jim to play in the intimate surroundings of this tiny pub venue, continuing The Greys' great reputation for the toppest notch live music.