Topic: Jug Band and Minstrel Shows

[cae67]

Hi,  I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, but I am doing some jug band research and have a question. Does anyone have any sources about jug bands or the jug being used in minstrel shows from the early 20th century (between 1900 - 1915, before the recordings of the 1920s)? In other blogs and forums, I keep seeing that jug bands were popular in minstrelsy but can't actually find any sources. I know Gus Cannon was active in travelling medicine shows, but that's about all I can find.

[dj]

Two books cited in the notes to Archeophone's "At The Minstrel Show" CD release might have something:

Tom Brooks - The Blackface Minstrel Show in Mass Media (McFarland, 2019)
Robert C. Toll - Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth Century America.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of either book.

Michael L. Jones - Louisville Jug Music is worth a read in this respect, as is

Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff - The Original Blues

This latter is mostly dedicated to the emergence of the blues in the Black Vaudeville circuit, and is mostly sourced from African American newspapers, but you'll probably find it interesting.



(Edited to add:  writing a response like this puts me in mind of our friend Bunker Hill, who I haven't heard from in several years.  If anyone knows how he's faring these days, please PM me.)

[eric]

Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy by Hans Nathan covers a period earlier than what you describe but provides an excellent background.