Welcome to Jug Tracks!
The goal of this website is to make it easier to hear, appreciate and learn to play the arrangements used by the earliest recorded jug bands. In some cases, these parts are hard to hear because of the primitive recording technology; in other cases, we've heard a cover version so many times that we've forgotten the details of the original.
For this site, I've picked apart the original recordings, identified the original players and rerecorded their parts as accurately as I could manage. Each song is presented with a mixer interface that lets you adjust track levels or isolate tracks, along with some observations about how the song was put together.
I made a few editorial decisions while recording:
- I played the songs in the original keys unless otherwise noted.
- In cases where the tempo speeds up in the original recording, I took the tempo from the middle of the song and played the whole song at that tempo.
- I used the original song structures (verse, chorus, solos).
- I sometimes adjusted titles to correct apparent typos or misunderstandings on the original releases (e.g., "Aunt Caroline Dye" instead of "Aunt Caroline Dyer").
- I sometimes adjusted lyrics to remove offensive content in light of present-day standards.
I plan to add more songs over time. If you are interested in contributing entire songs or individual tracks, you can email me by clicking my name in the footer below. And if this site is helpful to you, you can send a donation by clicking the Donate button below.
