The Return of Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin

The original Jim Kweskin Jug Band was as big as the Beatles. If you find that hard to believe, just remember that Paul and John started out as - guess what? - a jug band named the Quarrymen Skiffle Band. Kweskin assembled an exceptional group of musical innovators in the early 1960s, most of whom went on to pursue solo careers, including Maria (D'Amato) Muldaur, eclectic banjo player Bill Keith, bluesman Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin himself. Before last Saturday night in Framingham, I hadn't seen Muldaur and Kweskin on stage since the days of the Mooncusser Coffee House on "Circus" Avenue in Oak Bluffs. Thanks to that ever vigilant traditional music aficionado Will "Shade" Melton , those days came back to life , if only for a couple of hours.


Going to the Amazing Things Art Center in downtown Framingham was also nostalgic in respect to my own alleged career. I spent six years of my life working at an AM radio station in Natick, convinced that fame and fortune would be mine once the Boston stations decided to hire me, but - in the interim - had the distinction of covering the Framingham selectmens' meeting every Monday night. I never forgot the train station roof. You couldn't help but notice the sagging, nearly collapsed canopy of rotten shingles as you drove by, a symbol of small scale urban blight. Surprisingly, the concert was in a converted firehouse in the middle of downtown with an excellent Brazilian restaurant across the street, where Shade and I relaxed with an impressive buffet. Although Framingham's new look was commendable, I never did get to see if they fixed the train station roof.


Geoff Muldaur's voice is truly unequalled, coaxing out a long slow blues, adding a little vibrato, or just singing gently along with his guitar. Muldaur was the opening act. He joked easily with the audience between songs, his bemused expression indicating that we were all in the same age bracket, complete with the quip about the stock market, a far cry from the Vineyard. It was a pleasure watching him run through a fluid mix of blues and folk, including a slow Lonnie Johnson blues , the late Eric Von Schmidt's "Light Rain", and a Vera Hall tune that gave Geoff another chance to show off his vocal range. When Jim Kweskin arrived on stage, the Jug Band rose briefly from the ashes as they ran through some of the most familiar tunes, including, of course, "Fishing" with both guitars ably incorporating the melody. I quickly reverted to being a gawky fifteen year old cradling a cup of flavored coffee back in the day in Oak Bluffs.


When Jim Kweskin came out to start the second set, he added a fiddle player and a stand up bass. His penchant for folk music covers a wide range, from the talking political commentary of the Deperession strummers to the high energy ditties of the 1920s flappers, giving each song his own ironic twist. Once Geoff Muldaur returned , they were off and running, racing through jug band tunes like "Papa's On The Housetop" and "The Blues My Naughty Sweety Gives To Me", the fiddle player's hair-raising licks boosting up the energy level. The image that stays with me was the encore, Muldaur and Kweskin driving through a spine-straightening version of "Minglewood Blues" with Muldaur bellowing: "Well I was born in the desert/I was raised in a lions' den". The grand finale found all of us oldsters crooning:" Stealing/Stealing/Pretty mama don't you tell on me/Cause I'm stealing back to my same old used to be."


I wonder if this means jug band music is coming back - or - more to the point - did it ever go away? Besides, how often can you escape these days from the election or the stock market or the price of food for a few hours and actually have a good time - in downtown Framingham, of all places. I guess this means I'll have to go back now. After all, I still don't know if they ever fixed the damn roof!