Dr. David Evans and the Last Chance Jug Band 20th Anniversary : Memphis Acoustic Music Association

The Last Chance Jug Band has been drawing inspiration from groups such as Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and the Memphis Jug Band for 20 years now, putting its heart and soul into music that has everyone with a pulse tapping their feet. Dr. David Evans directs the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Memphis and has written many books and articles, both popular and scholarly. He earned a Grammy in 2003 for his album notes to the CD boxed set Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton.
In addition to Evans on vocals, guitar and kazoo, The Last Chance Jug Band includes jazz historian and Beale Street author Dick Raichelson on piano; Elmo Lee Thomas on harmonica; Clint Wagner on violin, banjo, and mandolin; and longtime Memphis percussionist Keith Padgett contributes the jug, washboard, tambourine, and other percussion instruments that give jug band music both its name and its distinctive sound, with just about everyone contributing background vocals and jug from time to time.

So leave your notebooks at home. There will be no pop quiz. But if you've got the blues, the doctor will write you a prescription for an injection of jubilation. Warning: this medication may be habit-forming, and side effects include outbreaks of smiles for no good reason. Come help celebrate 20 years of a joyful Memphis tradition. Here's to 20 more.