A List
11/24/08

SLU Offers Barbeque With Jug Band Music December 11

CANTON - A barbeque and jug band performance will take place in The Underground, on the lower floor of E.J. Noble University Center at St. Lawrence University, on Thursday, December 11. Food service begins at 5:30 p.m., with music starting at 6:30 p.m. Cost for the meal is $9, payable in cash, by check or with a student meal card.

The jug band is this year's "special productions" ensemble, which varies in genre and membership each year. The group is composed of students, faculty and people from the local community and it is directed by Michael Farley, associate professor of music.

Farley states, "I play regularly with the Radio Bob Band. About a year ago, I said to North Country Public Radio's Radio Bob Sauter, 'I want to make music that doesn't hurt...music that's happy.' In part, my ears were tired of the amplification of rock and roll. But more importantly, I wanted to do music that would lift people up, that would make them smile. It seemed an ideal time to revisit jug band music, a form of expression that made America smile in the midst of dreadful economic and social pressures."

The event, he says, is an "attempt to resurrect the 1920s and 30s in Memphis, Tennessee, and Knoxville, Kentucky, when jug bands were all the rage. In truth, it's a re-resurrection. Groups like Jim Kweskin's Jug Band created a major stir in the late 1960s. So, it's the right thing. It's been the music of hard, desperate times."

Among the tunes folks can expect to hear are "Borneo," "Jug Band Music," "Stealin'," "Dealin' With the Devil," "(I Am A) Man of Constant Sorrow," "Titantic" and "Keep Your Hand on the Plow."

For more information, contact the music department at 315-229-5184.

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