Reviews of new musical releases.

"THE BEST OF THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND," MEMPHIS JUG BAND, Yazoo/Shanachie (3 stars)

Jug bands enjoyed a little resurgence of popularity when those hippie types first started goofing around with traditional folk music, most notably (and popularly) the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and the Even Dozen Jug Band, predecessors of the Grateful Dead. Arguably, the Lovin' Spoonful, too, who even had a tasty single titled "Jug Band Music." Otherwise, of course, there is the would-be comical version of jug bands that were fueled by moonshine that in turn fueled stereotypes of the rural South.

All those roots trace back to the turn of the past century, when minstrel shows were on the fade and more authentic traditional folk music began to make its way to the streets, literally. The Memphis Jug Band, which enjoyed its peak popularity in the late `20s and early `30s, featured an amalgam of contemporary blues, folk, popular music and minstrelsy and played everywhere from saloons to brothels to gambling houses to street-corner showdowns in the Mecca of the South.

Led more or less by Will Shade, who learned to play the guitar at the ...