kept folks enthused. As Arlo says, “I Eventually he was overcome with especially like jug band music as a teaching wanderingfoot, and moved to Portland, © May 2011 by tool because it provides a very accessible and Oregon, where he lives with his wife Peter© 2013 Berryman by ArchivedPeter at louandpeter.comBerryman low-pressure framework for people to play Sally as of this writing. In Portland he Archived at louandpeter.com in.” The course, Jug Band Ensemble, is has continued to spread the word about still being offered. The stage name for jug band music, not only forming his Arlo Leach and Jug Band Music Arlo's class was the Hump Night own jug band once again (the How Thumpers (“hump night” being slang for Long Jug Band), plus an acoustic blues I keep running into people working Wednesday night, the night the class trio (the Spodee-o's), but creating and hard for the furtherance of folk music, would meet), which went on to win the promoting annual Jugapalooza concerts outside of — or often in conjunction National Battle of the Jug Bands in in the Portland area, and hosting a with — actually playing the stuff. One Minneapolis. monthly Jug Band Jam. such person, slogging nonstop to keep jug band music alive and respected, is From Arlo’s Statement of Purpose: On top of all that, Arlo is a freelance pro- my friend Arlo Leach. “First and foremost, I want to encourage cre- grammer and web designer, and has ativity, individualism, and self-expression used that expertise to develop jug-band- Arlo Leach — songwriter, musician, re- from all people.” But along this path of themed acoustic music apps. Lou and I cording engineer, programmer, web de- promoting an acoustic-music-for-every- sat over coffee at Cafe Zoma recently signer, music teacher, and passionate jug one, he began to realize that the jug band while Arlo, on a visit to Madison with band enthusiast, among other things — music genre did owe gratitude to a num- his wife whose parents live nearby, ran was born in 1973 in Iowa, into a family ber of specific individuals, particularly these apps through their paces. He has which had run a music store in Des a handful of folks in Memphis and other created them for the iPhone, iPod Touch, Moines for generations. Says Arlo: Southern cities back in the 20s and 30s. and/or the iPad. They include a mouth He began to make pilgrimages to impor- harp (jaw harp) app which can be “At the age of five, I performed in a tiny tant sites in their lives, and to grave- played with your lips; a jug app, an tuxedo on four different instruments in a yards where they were buried. To his autoharp app, a washboard app, a kazoo local TV commercial for my grandparents’ sad surprise, most of these people had app, and a bones app, not to mention a music store... The instruments were violin, no grave markers, having died without brilliant setlist app for musicians to use piano, probably trumpet, and soprano sax... the financial ability to pay for them. when assembling their list of songs for Between my grandparents and my dad... I the night. (He even mused about the got an excellent education in basic music So Arlo arranged benefit concerts in possibility of a virtual accordion app, theory and performance, but I had to go out Chicago for various of these under- worked by strapping an iPad to each and discover folk music and roots music on lauded creative geniuses, starting with hand.) All (but the accordion) are avail- my own.” one for the late Will Shade, the brains able online through Apple's App Store. and talent behind the legendary Mem- The man is munificent and tireless; his Arlo moved to Madison after graduat- phis Jug Band. Shade, born in 1898, most recent app has taken 2,000 hours ing from Iowa's Grinnell College. I first died in 1966 and was buried in an un- of programming so far, and you don’t met him when he came to a CD release marked grave in a “pauper’s cemetary.” get rich selling jug band apps. party of ours in Madison in 1998. By The concert, billed as The Will Shade this time, he had already engineered and Gravestone Benefit and featuring con- Amazing how many ways a passion for issued Madison’s first enhanced CD (a temporary jug bands, was a success. art can be used to benefit this ol' world. music CD which doubles as a data CD, Enough money was raised to have a And speaking of art, Arlo's recordings containing lyrics and videos, etc) of his headstone made and installed and to are many and fine, particularly the most own songs. We talked briefly about send Leach and other musicians to recent How Long Jug Band CD. Sound various recording methods. Soon there- Memphis for a dedication (and some jug clips and ordering info on Arlo's sites. after, he invited me to a gig of his own band music) at the site. where he showed me how he recorded http://www.arloleach.com/ directly to a laptop. Arlo was extremely Successful concerts for other such trea- http://www.arlotone.com/ generous with his knowledge and time, sured musicians followed. Meanwhile, http://www.howlongjugband.com/ and in the year 2000 Lou and I recorded Arlo continued to teach at the Old Town http://www.jugapalooza.com/ our album House Concert using Arlo’s School and to write and play in his jug https://www.oldtownschool.org/ method, which I described in Whither band and on his own, and somewhere Zither for October 2000. found the time to launch Chicago’s an- Arlo's pages have much more info about his nual Battle of the Jug Bands, which projects and music. Also, many old and new That same year, Arlo moved to Chicago. continues to this day. As Mark Guarino jug bands -- including Arlo's -- have videos There, for six years, he was an instruc- wrote in the Tribune for November 11 on YouTube. Start by searching there for tor at the Old Town School of Folk of 2009, “If the recent jug band movement “jug band”. Many thanks to my pal Arlo Music, where he began teaching guitar in Chicago can be summed up in a single Leach for this episode. but found that teaching jug band music person, it is Arlo Leach.” WZ, Feb 2013