Jim Kweskin grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1958 entered Boston University, placing him near coffee houses at the height of the Folk Boom. Mixing early jazz with folk, blues, ragtime, and country, he formed Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, breathing life into music previously relegated to dusty 78s and influencing groups from the Lovin’ Spoonful to Grateful Dead.
Culling his eclectic tastes and pre-1950 repertoire, Never Too Late finds the 83-year-old dueting with a host of females including Jug Band alum Maria Muldaur and granddaughter Fiona Kweskin. In the company of Cindy Cashdollar’s slide and Suzy Thompson’s fiddle, Kweskin’s acoustic fingerpicking shines bright as ever.
What music first attracted you?
I started listening to my father’s 78 records when I was six or seven years old. They were mostly early jazz, traditional stuff like Sidney Bechet, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven, and Bessie Smith. And he had a couple of Leadbelly records; I loved that.
When did you take up guitar?
I went to summer camp when I was 13 or 14, and one of the counselors sang folk songs. That’s when I got in proximity of somebody playing guitar, and I loved it. Then, Pete Seeger gave a concert there. That’s the period when he was blacklisted. There weren’t too many places he could play, but he came and played for us.
I took guitar lessons, but the teacher was a jazz guy, and I wanted to do folk songs like the Weavers. When I got to college and started going to clubs, I ran into people who could really play. My passion just blossomed, and the next couple of years was when my playing really happened. Our bible was the Harry Smith Archives’ Anthology of American Folk Music, which was three double-albums. Then I saw Eric Von Schmidt at Club 47 in Cambridge, playing guitar and singing “Buddy Bolden’s Blues,” which I knew as a Jelly Roll Morton tune. A light went off. All these jazz songs I loved, you could sing and play on guitar like a folk song! Which is what jug band music is – early jazz played on folk instruments. Instead of trombones, trumpets, and clarinets, it’s kazoos, washboards, jugs, fiddles, banjos, and guitars.
Did you perform as a solo act?
I hardly ever played alone. I might have five or six guys onstage with me. Fritz Richmond played washtub bass. Whoever I could get who was a good musician, we’d just be jamming onstage. One night, I didn’t know that the owner of Vanguard Records was in the audience, and when the show was over he said, “How’d you like to make a record with that band?” I said, “Well, that’s not a band, but I’d like to make a record. Give me three months, and I’ll put a real band together.”
I started playing old jazzy or jug-band tunes early on. That was the music I was attracted to – the Memphis Jug Band and Dixieland Jug Blowers out of Louisville. The Mississippi Sheiks were blues, and blues is part of folk music, but they’re a great string band. Cannon’s Jug Stompers’ “Feather Bed” – just amazing. But I also played Appalachian ballads, like “The Cuckoo.”
Guitar in jug bands was just rhythm, not picking like you do.
That’s right. I listened to all the great pickers, like Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Pink Anderson. I absolutely worshipped a whole slew of them. I learned patterns and how to three-finger pick – thumb, index, and middle – from Rolf Cahn. But I don’t think about patterns when I’m playing now. The patterns just taught my fingers how to play.
I got to meet Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, Son House, Skip James. I thought they were really old, but they were younger than I am now. I mostly sat around and listened to them play and sing, and I’d watch their fingers and learn songs. I wasn’t too interested in their history when I was 19 or 20 years old; I’m more interested in that now.
What’s your main guitar?
In 1959, I got a Martin D-18 at Wurlitzer Music, in Boston. I wanted a D-28, but I didn’t have $300. I only had $200, which is what a brand-new D-18 cost then, with the case. It turned out that the D-18 was perfect for me. I’ve played one all my professional life. I also got a D-18S 12-fret from Elderly Instruments. It sounds rich and beautiful, but I need a 14-fret guitar to perform with.
You influenced and inspired people like the Lovin’ Spoonful and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, even the Grateful Dead, all those bands started out as jug bands. They were a few years younger than us, and they listened to our records. I listened to the people before me, and they listened to the people before them. I just happened to be a band that came up before them.
This article originally appeared in VG’s April 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
