"Funky American String Band Music"

Ramblin Jug Stompers play 78 rpm music for the 21st century: they are the premier jug band of New York's Capital Region! Their ever-growing set list includes selections from Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Jimmy Cliff, The Carter Family, Jesse Fuller, Grandpa Jones, Uncle Dave Macon, Flatt & Scruggs, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Jimmy Reed, Hank Williams, and more...

RJS on Sonic Bids View our Electronic Press Kit on Sonic Bids

Upcoming shows

Saturday August 7, 8:00PM
Marketplace Gallery
40 Broadway, Suite No. 23, Albany, NY 12202
-click here to view map of location-


Sunday August 8, 7:00PM
Agnes McDonald Music Haven Stage
featuring Ruth Pelham and The Music Mobile
Agnes McDonald Music Haven Stage
Central Park, Iroquois Way, Schenectady NY
-click here to view map of location-


Monday August 16, 7:00PM
Capital Repertory Theatre
"Lark Tavern in Exile" night at Cap Rep
111 N. Pearl Street, Albany, NY 12207-2293
-click here to view map of location-
Free admission - with donations going to Tess' Lark Tavern
-call 518.462.4531 for more info


Monday August 23, 8:00PM
"8 @ 8" Concert Series
Hanna Park Performance Stage, Broadway, Utica, NY
"Broadway at City Hall. One block off from Genesee Street,
near Court Street and the Radisson Hotel"
-click here to view map of location-

"Hobo Nickel", the debut studio album
from Ramblin Jug Stompers,
has hit the streets!


Click here to hear song samples of Hobo Nickel
and purchase the CD or its downloads
from the CD-Baby online store.

Hobo Nickel

RJS is pretty darned excited that our album "Hobo Nickel," is stirring up some rave reviews.
Here's Robert Burke Warren's review from the current issue of Chronogram Magazine:

ARTIST: Ramblin Jug Stompers
ALBUM: "Hobo Nickel"

Next time you're stuck in a traffic jam or suffering a hard-drive meltdown, consider soothing yourself via "Hobo Nickel," the sophomore release from the Capital District's own brazenly low-tech string band, the Ramblin Jug Stompers. AutoTune? They don't need no stinkin' AutoTune! The quartet's exuberantly soulful, all-acoustic throwdown features odes both classic and obscure, each bristling with low-down energy that could be mustered only by the gleefully grizzled. "Hobo Nickel" is a bold throwback, conjuring a yester-world of hobo jungles, cakewalks, and grimy pals meetin' round the burn barrel. Regardless of how difficult times may actually have been for the protagonists of these tunes, the Stompers make it all sound really fun.

Band members Cousin Clyde, Mister Eck (aka Chronogram's Michael Eck), Bowtie, and Wild Bill come to the table from varying worlds of punk, jazz, folk, and theater, and the broad range of experience makes for string band music with a few curveballs. In addition to acoustic guitar, banjo, jug, washboard, kazoo, and mandolin, these mischievous geezers are apt to throw in a manual typewriter and a resonator ukulele, as on the hilarious 'My Eggs Don't Taste the Same without You.' While the Stompers do love to incite folks to pound the floorboards, the foursome also possess impressive restraint and delicacy, as evidenced on 'Blue Diamond Mines' and the lovely hobo requiem 'Frypan Jack Enters Heaven.' The romance of riding the rails may only be fantasy, but with the Ramblin Jug Stompers leading the way, few could resist a stroll to the train yard.

RJS with Kweskin and Muldaur

After Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur performed at Caffe Lena last month, we hung out with 'em backstage!

"The doctor said: give 'em jug band music, it seems to make 'em feel just fine!"
-- John Sebastian


Photographs by Joe Putrock, Tim Cahill, Jon Flanders, Avalon Peacock, Andrzej Pilarczyk
Graphic by Lillie Ruby
Hosted by Blue Owl Solutions
Copyright © 2006-2010 by Ramblin Jug Stompers