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Our Review

Ladies & gentlemen, get ready for well over an hour (73 minutes!) of jug-infused revelry. The incredible Christmas Jug Band made merry with prior holiday releases (Rhythm on the Roof and Uncorked); now here comes the CJB with its brand new, fresh-off-the-presses On the Holiday Highway, and it's a hootin', hollerin' shot-in-the-pants. In fact, the very first track is appropriately Shoot 'Em in the Pants, not exactly your traditional entree into a holiday album, but there you have it. A honky-tonkin' romp that comes complete with the accordion, kazoo, slide whistles, and washboard! Just because these guys are having way too much fun, never mistake the shenanigans for poor musicianship. The CJB is talented every which way, and these live performances (recorded 2006-08) make it amply clear that their audiences recognize and greatly appreciate the CJB's entertaining talents and free-spirited creativity. Count me on that list--I'm a believer!

On the Holiday Highway is crazy good; the songs are cross-genre wonders blending rockabilly, jazz, salsa, and the kitchen sink. Every track caught my attention; the CJB delivers innovative new compositions and perfect parodies, pumping holiday themes into old classics like "My Blue Heaven." The ambiance is whimsical, bluesy, and perhaps a little boozy, and everything clicks with first-rate, folksy professionalism.

This music is fantastic and fun; my toes were tapping throughout. Bored of routine, done-to-death, Christmas music drivel? Crank up your audio system and give the CJB's On the Holiday Highway a whirl. What a ride!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2009)

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From the liner notes:

Live Recording.
Produced by Tim Eschliman and the CJB.
Engineered by Lou Judson & Coleen of Intuitive Audio.

The foremost purveyors of Seasonal Skiffle-Swing and Jugabilly-Infused Revelry.


From the Website:

FEATURING:Austin deLone: vocals, accordion, piano, guitar; Tim Eschliman: vocals, percussion, guitar, kazoo, jaw harp, bells; Paul Rogers: vocals, accordion, piano; Dan Hicks: vocals, guitar, percussion; Jim Rothermel: tenor, soprano & alto sax, clarinet, harmonica, recorder, kazoo, vocals; Ken "Turtle" Vandermarr: guitar, vocals; Anthony Paule: guitar, vocals; Gregory Leroy Dewey: washboard, drums, vocals; Blake Richardson: washtub bass, string bass, vocals; Ken "Snakebite" Jacobs: clarinet, tenor & bari sax; Bowen Brown: percussion; Lech Wierzynski: trumpet; ;Knucklehead McGurk: guitar, vocals; with special guests Country Joe McDonald, Norton Buffalo, Mike Duke, and Dan Hicks' Lickettes.

Live Recording By: Lou Judson & Coleen Of Inutuitive Audio
PRODUCED BY: Tim Eschliman & THE CJB

The Christmas Jug Band Story - A momentary lapse of sanity that became an annual holiday tradition spanning over 30 years.

A small group of pals living in Mill Valley, California, in the mid 70s with a penchant for Kentucky bourbon formed Monday Night Wild Turkey Jug Band. From Yellow Springs, Ohio, Gregory Leroy "Duke Dagreeze" Dewey (Mad River, County Joe & the Fish, Marty Balin), his brother - Nicholas Q (Not Joe) Dewey, and their partner in "The Reptile Brothers Band," Tim Eschliman (Commander Cody, Etta James) started the weekly Appalachian-style jug jams with the Deweys' roommate, Paul Wenninger (from Chicago, road manager for Van Morrison, Dan Hicks).

Spur-of-the-moment street corner appearances, instigated by Dan Hicks (Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks) around the same time also had a jug band instrumentation and included many of the same musicians. The Monday Night Wild Turkey sessions lasted only 10 weeks, but had many guests stopping by, including Hicks; L. D. Armstrong (Rowdy and the Rivets), Austin de Lone (Eggs Over Easy, Commander Cody), and other local musicians mostly from the Old Mill Tavern music scene.

The jug-jam sessions were about creating new tunes, new lyrics, or just new grooves with an acoustic, backwoods, jug sound. A harmonica, old arch top f-hole type guitars, a jaw harp, a washboard, a washtub bass and even coat-hangers banged on the edge of the old wooden kitchen table became the desired sounds of the group. To preserve the creative spontaneity, cover songs were generally forbidden and to maintain the funky, down-in-the-holler home-made instrument kind of sound, pianos, professional-sounding dread-naught sized guitars and any other instruments deemed "too-good-sounding" were discouraged. Carbon-date testing of left over Kentucky bourbon decanters from those sessions point to the year 1976.

In late 1977, Dan Hicks, host of the infamous "Monday Night Open Mike" sessions at the Old Mill Tavern, was needed for a recording gig in Los Angeles. His jug-headed cohorts, regular entrants to the Open Mike, covered for him and hosted the event on December 19, 1977. Billed as "The Three Wise Men +4 -1 Jug Band," this early cast of characters laid down their first holiday set of irreverent tunes. The owner of The Old Mill then suggested the band do a Christmas Eve gig. That show, which included Mr. Hicks, started the annual jug band performances.

The Christmas Jug Band

On the Holiday Highway

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Track List