Artists:Philadelphia Jug Band

The Philadelphia Jug Band traces its roots to the early 1960s when its four core members (Dave Gauck, Jim Klingler, Steve Miller, and Frank Zemlan) were students at Council Rock High School in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. The "folk music revival" was rapidly spreading across America, and Philadelphia was one of America’s great folk meccas.

In 1962, Dave, Jim, Steve, Frank, and other classmates formed a group known as the Ridgerunners and began playing mainstream, popular folk music. They performed well-known folk tunes such as "Tom Dooley", "If I Had A Hammer", "House of the Rising Sun", and "Charlie on the MTA". Their music soon evolved into more ethnic, authentic, and personal forms. The early band included up to 13 members and provided entertainment for themselves and others.

By 1964, the Ridgerunners included Dave Gauck on jug, washtub bass, and occasional vocals; Frank Zemlan and Jim Klingler on guitar and vocals; Steve Miller on washboard, kazoo, and vocals; and Sandy Shaw on vocals. In 1965, the band was briefly called the Keystone County Ragtime Euphoria Jug Band. By the late 1960s, it was known as the Philadelphia Jug Band. Sandy eventually left the band for more esoteric pursuits.

When Dave, Jim, Steve, and Frank graduated from high school and went to college, many thought the Philadelphia Jug Band would cease to exist. But the members could not let the music go. The band members pursued graduate studies, had families, relocated, and settled into careers, but the music continued.

Despite all the changes and moves, the band fell into a pattern. Everyone was able to get together three times a year — Memorial Day weekend, New Year’s Eve, and, of course, at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Through the 1970s , special gigs also brought them together.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, the Philadelphia Jug Band kept on performing. When the folk music scene subsided in the 1980s, it looked as if the group would become a musical anomaly. Things took a turn and people drifted back to the music.

The Philiadelphic Jug Band CD is the band’s second formal recording session and the first to survive in a coherent form and format. (The first session was at local radio station WXPN in 1975.)