Gettin' Juggy With It...

Here's another "Ok, so..." of mine. Ok, so, I've been working on the guitar since I was in 9th grade. Yes, that's a long time, and how sad that I've only reached my current level of skill. Oh well, I get by just fine, thank you, BUT with the unfortunate departure of Damn Horses' long-time washtub bass AND jug player, the job of blowing the jug in the band has fallen to me. This summer we played in Grand Rapids MN for KAXE Radio's Mississippi River Festival, and that was my debut performance on the jug - in a big amphitheater in front of a couple hundred people. Despite my total lack of experience - or know-how or skill for that matter - it went fairly well, and I received two very generous rounds of applause for my efforts. After our set as I was walking around the festival, I had numerous people actually approach me and tell me how much they enjoyed my jug playing. I thought about it for a moment and came up with, "Really? So, I work my fingers literally to the bone for 25 years trying to learn how to kick a$$ as a guitarist with luke warm results, yet one of the first times that I step up to a mic and produce semi-musical tooting noises by blowing into a ceramic container, it's an instant big hit?" I'll edit out the conclusions about people and music that I drew from that. ;-)  Instead, please enjoy this instructional video from the "Jimi Hendrix of the Jug."

"...if you were worried about looking like an idiot, why are you learning to play the jug?"