Michael Johnathon and his "front-porch music" series is a wonderful discovery.
I caught an episode on New York's public-TV station, featuring guitarist Jim Kweskin backed by the Alabama-based Steel City Jug Slammers. The delightful young combo plays such down-home instruments as the washtub bass, a pole-supported toot horn, and the moonshine jug.
We also hear from Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton on a fretless 1840s banjo, along with which he mournfully sings, "I'd rather be dead in my grave than be in all this trouble I'm in."
A lovely interlude arrives with the teenage Wallace Sisters and their cigar-box ukulele, in a rendition of a Guns N' Roses tune picked by their mom.
Johnathon brings a teacher's zeal to the stage, encouraging the audience to "do what you love...whether it's making you a millionaire, or just making you feel that way."
He notes that the series' website offers an archive of tapes from scores of shows. Sounds well worth a listen.
I caught an episode on New York's public-TV station, featuring guitarist Jim Kweskin backed by the Alabama-based Steel City Jug Slammers. The delightful young combo plays such down-home instruments as the washtub bass, a pole-supported toot horn, and the moonshine jug.
We also hear from Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton on a fretless 1840s banjo, along with which he mournfully sings, "I'd rather be dead in my grave than be in all this trouble I'm in."
A lovely interlude arrives with the teenage Wallace Sisters and their cigar-box ukulele, in a rendition of a Guns N' Roses tune picked by their mom.
Johnathon brings a teacher's zeal to the stage, encouraging the audience to "do what you love...whether it's making you a millionaire, or just making you feel that way."
He notes that the series' website offers an archive of tapes from scores of shows. Sounds well worth a listen.
