Review Of Bluelights CD “RUB THAT RHYTHM,” Sing Out! Magazine - Summer 2007

Jug band music was first heard on the sidewalks of Louisville and Memphis in the late 1920s. Performed by African Americans on both conventional instruments such as banjo, guitar and mandolin as well as on homemade contrivances like jug, washboard, gutbucket bass and kazoo, its resulting stylistic range led to a widespread popularity among the "race" record buyers of the time. Aggregations such as the Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers played everything from early country and jazz and pop favorites to minstrel songs and ragtime. It all ended with the Depression of the 1930s only to see a revival in the early 1960s by white bands helmed by the likes of Jim Kweskin, Dave Van Ronk and Jerry Garcia.

The Peter "Washboard Slim" Menta-led Bluelights, founded twenty years ago, exuberantly carries the tradition forward on this 13 track mix of covers and originals while adding intriguing elements of gospel, polka, rock 'n' roll, jump blues and rockabilly to the mix. The remaining, in-the-groove Bluelights, all multi-instrumentalists like Menta, are Howard Horn, Mat Kastner (great National steel guitar), Brooks Barnett and Cynthia Fabian - who takes some fine lead vocals on rompers like the bawdy "I Want To Be Bad" and the Klezmer-tinged "Down And Out".

Other "don't misses" are an accordion-colored cover of Slim Gaillard's 1950-era topical bid "Atomic Cocktail", a delightful send-up of Todd Rundgren's "Bang On A Drum All Day" and animated takes on both the gospel chestnut "Packing Up" and the jug band staple "Boodleam Shake". A pair of originals by sometimes band member Mark Crofutt (the autobiographical title song and the novelty "Bigfoot") and a swinging version of the Hawaiian classic "When Old Bill Bailey Plays The Ukulele" also deliver the goods. Recommended. - GvonT