Juggernaut Jug Band

BIOGRAPHY

The Juggernaut Jug Band is one of the oldest, continuously active jug bands in the United States. The group was formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1965 by high school friends who were inspired by the American folk music revival. The Juggernaut Jug Band is known for its whimsical blend of traditional old-time music, swing tunes, blues, ragtime, and original compositions played on guitars, washboards, washtubs, kazoos, jugs, and other novelty objects.

The band is featured in Chasin’ Gus' Ghost, Todd Kwaits’ 2004 documentary on jug band history, along with Jim Kweskin, John Sebastian, Maria Muldaur, Bob Weir, and Taj Mahal. The Louisville Metro Council named the group “Ambassadors of Goodwill to the World” in 2009. The Juggernaut Jug Band was also featured in the Celebrating the Sounds of Kentucky music exhibition at Louisville’s Frazier History Museum in 2019.

The current band line-up includes: original member Ralph “Roscoe Goose” Helm (jug, vocals, washboard); Carrol “Easy Mark” Ohlson (guitar, vocals); “The Mysterious Mr. Keith” Hornung (washtub bass, vocals); and Don “D Man” Oswald (guitar, vocals), whose father “Dr. Don” was an original member of the band.

EARLY HISTORY

In the isolated areas of the Appalachian Mountains, African banjo merged with the Scotch Irish fiddle tradition to form old-time music. Musicians did not always have access to instruments, so they were forced to make do with the household objects around them. Playing animal bones, spoons, and blowing into empty bottles to make music became part of the old-time music tradition. Jug blowing flourished in river towns like Louisville, where the practice was encouraged by the city’s thriving bourbon industry.

There were more than 30 active jug bands plying their trade on Louisville’s streets and riverboats between 1890 and 1930. They were mostly African American ensembles that played a mixture of old minstrel show tunes, pop standards, ragtime, and blues. Two Louisville groups, Sara Martin’s Jug Band and Whistler’s Jug Band, became the first jug band to record in 1925. This ignited a national jug band craze that lasted until the Great Depression. Although the popularity of jug band music declined in the United States, it remained popular in England as Skiffle music. The genre experienced a resurgence during the American folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s after artists like Dave Van Ronk and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band renewed interest in the traditional American music.

The Juggernaut Jug Band was founded in 1965 by two students from Waggener High School in Louisville. John Fish (banjo, ukulele) and Steve Helm (guitar) did not know about the city’s connection to jug band music when they founded the group. Fish and Helm were influenced by folk artists like Van Ronk, Kweskin,  Hoyt Axton, and Buffy Saint Marie. They recruited Don Oswald (guitar), Fred Glock (jug) and Steve’s younger brother Ralph Helm (jug, harmonica) to fill out their jug band.

When it came to naming the new group, Fish looked in the dictionary to find words that had “jug” in them. He settled on juggernaut because it was an unstoppable force. However, the original line-up proved not so unstoppable because Glock, Fish, and Steve Helm graduated from high school. With Glock gone, Ralph Helm became the group’s jug player, a position he holds to this day. Another high school friend, Steve Drury, joined Ralph Helm and Oswald on washtub bass. The new lineup made its debut at a Waggener High School “vaudeville” show.

After graduating from high school, Ralph Helm joined the U.S. Navy while Drury and Oswald headed to college. When he returned from the Navy in 1972, Helm found Drury and Oswald ready to get serious about jug band music. Oswald recruited another former classmate, Mark Ohlson, as a rhythm guitarist.  Ohlson and Oswald began to write original songs to go along with the traditional material in the band’s repertoire.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

The Juggernaut Jug Band played its first professional gig at the Steak and Ale in Louisville. But it was at another local club, the Butchertown Pub, where the group’s reputation began to spread. The band performed at the Butchertown Pub every Friday night for four years, honing their skills. In 1974, local radio station WLRS-102 FM selected the band’s original tune “Chicken Pie”  for its local music compilation Homemade Album. The Juggernauts’ song also inspired the record’s cover which was an elderly woman holding up a pie with the album title carved into it.

Tom Sobel, a former Waggener High School classmate, became the band’s manager. For the next five years were a blur of festivals, bar gigs, private events, and some notable appearances at the Kentucky Derby Festival Chow Wagon. While hanging out at the Store Front Congregation, a local music hangout that showcased acts that went on to fame, Ohlson met the New Grass Revival, which recorded Ohlson’s song “Pennies in My Pocket” for their first album.  

The Juggernaut Jug Band also shared stages with high profile artists like Leon Russell, Arlo Guthrie, John Hartford, Jonathan Edwards, Riders In the Sky, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. The group even performed at the opening of Opryland and at the first Bluegrass Festival of the United States.

Inspired by the Star-Spangled Washboard Band from Albany, New York, the band members decided to make their act more theatrical. As a master tunesmith who could cure what ails you, Oswald became Dr. Don. Whether because of his sanguine demeanor or reputed gullibility, Ohlson was dubbed Easy Mark. Drury transformed into the Amazing Mr. Fish after a fan noticed he often performed with a rubber fish in his pocket. Helm became Roscoe Goose one night after the band was leaving a gig and Dr. Don noticed a historical marker to the famous jockey who won the 1913 Kentucky Derby.

The heavy touring schedule took a toll on the Juggernaut Jug Band. In 1979, Ohlson moved to North Carolina. Helm and Oswald moved on to other bands, mostly playing blues and featuring some jug band tunes. In 1989, Helm moved to Florida. Drury kept the Juggernaut Jug Band going with a rotating cast of  musicians, but the group’s activity slowed down because he was also operating a successful business, the Hitching Post Saddle Shop.

The Juggernaut Jug Band might have faded away for good if the band’s old manager had not intervened. When Helm returned to Louisville in 1994, found that Sobel was operating a popular comedy club called the Comedy Caravan. Sobel wanted the Juggernaut Jug Band to perform on Wednesday nights. He offered the group $30 a night and free drinks. That was enough to get Helm back in the Juggernaut fold with Drury, guitarist Pat Lentz. The Juggernaut Jug Band also started a regular monthly gig at Clifton Pizza in Louisville for many years.

Juggernaut Jug Band visited every state in the lower 48 except Rhode Island, and parts of Canada, performing and giving talks about jug band music. In addition to live shows, the group began recording albums. Perhaps You Don’t Recognize Us was released in 1996, it included traditional jug bands tunes,  the now classic original “Chicken Pie,” and quirky covers of the Door’s “People Are Strange” and “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin. It was followed by Jugstaposition, Don’t Try This At Home, and several other releases.

The Juggernaut Jug Band created a special outreach program for Jefferson County Public Schools as part of the member’s desire to spread their love of jug band music to future generations. Drury also partnered with Rod Wenz, a retired public relation executive and Juggernaut fan, to create the National Jug Band Jubilee to celebrate Louisville’s jug band legacy. The Juggernaut Jug Band and the Cincinnati Dancing Pigs performed at the first Jubilee in 2005. It was held on the Belle of Louisville, the last Mississippi River steamboat still in operation.

Today, the Jubilee is a free, all-day festival that attracts thousands of people to Louisville’s Waterfront Park every September. Some of the world-class performers who have include Jim Kweskin, Gary Maulder, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, the American Songster Dom Flemons, and Japan’s Old Southern Jug Blowers. The Juggernauts and the Dancing Pigs are the only groups that remain on the bill every year. The Juggernauts have also done school shows and public performances to help promote the Jubilee.

Unfortunately, Dr. Don passed away in 2005 and Drury in 2009. Helm continued the Juggernauts with a succession of accomplished and slight wacky musicians. After returning to Louisville, Ohlson rejoined the group and Helm recruited Dr. Don’s son, Don “D-Man” Oswald, to handle guitar duties. The group performed for English royalty when Prince Charles visited Louisville in 2015.

After more than five decades spent preaching the “Gospel of the Jug,” the Juggernaut Jug Band shows no sign of slowing down.  The band played on opening day at Churchill Downs in 2018 thanks to a grant from the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation. This continued a tradition of jug band music at the horse racing track that dates back to 1903 when Earl McDonald’s Louisville Jug Band performed there. Washington Post reviewer Mike Joyce once wrote of the Juggernaut Jug Band,  “They don’t allow their virtuosity get in the way of having FUN!” Joyce’s words serve as the band’s mission statement to this day.

CURRENT MEMBERS

Stu "Roscoe Goose" Helm

Carroll "Easy Mark" Ohlson

Don "D Man" Oswald

Michael "Mr Keith" Hornung

FORMER MEMBERS

John Fish

Fred Glock

Steve Helm

"Dr Don" Oswald

Steve "Gil Fish" Drury

Tom Dempsey

Greg Lentz

Pat "Slim Chance" Lentz

Chris "Hooey Bee" Rourke

John Pendergast

Terry Barmore

Jim "Jimbalaya" Schweickart

Al Brock

Chris "Big Daddy" Tolbert

Mike "Smiley Habanero" Hoerni

Chris "The Kid" Brandstatt

Dennis "Nick O' Time" Talley

Tyrone Wheeler

Jeff Guernsey

"Jug Band Jimmy" Brown

References

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