Like pretty much everything in Ever-Lovin’ Jug Band’s orbit, their Ampex 351 has an interesting history. In the early 1980s, the tape machine factored into the development of the THX cinema sound system for the Lucasfilm classic Return Of The Jedi. More recently, Jug Band principals Bill Howard and Minnie Heart set aside the Ampex in favor of a Tascam MS-16 and M-520 mixing console, employing an array of vintage microphones and outboard gear to record their latest LP, Move That Thing, available tomorrow on Jalopy Records.
After they first connected at a recording session in Montreal, Howard and Heart bonded over their mutual obsession with folk music and vintage sounds. Howard got himself a washboard, and Heart took up the washtub bass. The critical third piece fell into place when, at a dinner party, Bruce Cockburn showed them the way around a jug. Moving to southern Ontario, they assembled a five-piece band and recorded their first album, 2013’s Tri-City Stomp, on a four-track cassette recorder.
A decade later, Ever-Lovin’ Jug Band reverted quite naturally to its core duo. Heart plays fiddle, mandolin-banjo and kazoo, plus a rumba box with her feet. Howard covers guitar and jug. The duo has spent an inordinate amount of time on the road, making their way around Canada and the U.S., largely at their own pace, in a converted ’98 Ford Aerostar van. During a lengthy stayover in New Orleans, the Aerostar became a makeshift recording studio for Howard and his Mashed Potato Records. With help from former Jug Bander Duff Thompson and Sam Doores (Deslondes, Hurray For The Riff Raff), Howard recorded a ton of aspiring acts in an abandoned lot in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. Heart pitched in on various instruments, also designing record covers, logos and posters.
Now back home in Ontario, Howard and Heart are busy working on videos to accompany all 12 tracks on Move That Thing. The visual starting point for “Cabbage White” was the Yardbirds’ “beautifully awkward” promotional footage for 1968’s “Heart Full Of Soul.”
“We made the song up at our friend’s musicians’ writing residency, where you stay in a trailer in his backyard, write songs for a few days, then record them in his toolshed before you go,” the duo says. “One morning, while playing guitar in the garden, we just started singing about all the cabbage whites, butterflies and chipmunks living in the plants. When it came time to record, we combined T.Rex-flavored production with ‘Instant Karma’ drumming, refining the lyrics to suit the cosmic undertones. The whole song is acoustic, except for an electric 12-string rhythm guitar. The crazy sounds between verses are singing, saxophone, reverb and forward-backward tape delay.”
We’re proud to premiere Ever-Lovin’ Jug Band’s “Cabbage White” video.
—Hobart Rowland
