A half a century ago, when America was a more wholesome place than its current manifestation, a man by the name of Kerouac wrote the great American novel of its time. In the novel, On the Road, Kerouac recounts the adventures had when crisscrossing the newly developed highway system. Kerouac himself often romanticized of an even earlier America still: a time when the depression was in full swing and hobos drifted from town to town looking for work, a hot meal, and a safe place to sleep. With their album Whiskey Will Fix It, the Iowa-based Escape the Floodwater Jug Band rekindles some of that nostalgic imagery and treats us to an earful of early twentieth century Americana.
Mixing traditional instrumentation (banjos, acoustic guitars, and ahem ukuleles) with the unconventional (a jug and a washboard), Escape the Floodwater Jug Band creates sounds commonly heard in the days before you could "plug in" and when an outdoor "venue" was a town fair or a dusty corner by the railroad tracks. With people like Sam Beam of Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens making the banjo cool to indie rock kids and fans of college radio, it's refreshing to hear the style of music the banjo was intended for.
Being a connoisseur of hobo culture I've noticed too many musicians of this genre write lyrical content that idealizes the good ol' days, when life was simple. To get across the country you simply head to the local train yard, look for a freight headed in your direction and catch out when the bull (train yard police) wasn't looking. The truth is that with the exception of convicts and kids who listen to Plan-it-X Records nobody hops freights anymore, making much of that lyrical content cliché. Escape the Floodwater Jug Band notes this and writes sounds about having fun. What's fun to them? Drinking, dancing and Tiny Tim covers. With an album that's half covers and half originals, they manage to cover topics of drinking, evolution, drinking, getting naked (and from the looks of some of the ladies, I'm up for the invite), and but of course, drinking. By the time this album finishes you might find yourself slinging back whiskey, stomping your feet, and spitting in an urn.
The quality of the album is surprisingly hi-fi; still something about it leads me to believe that a lot of these tracks were recorded live. If you listen you'll hear that the vocals aren't quite even in a lot of places only demonstrating that this is type of music best played by a live band. My favorite part about Whiskey Will Fix It is the smooth female vocals balanced with the gruffness of low male vocals. The instrumentation is dead on, proving Escape the Floodwater Jug Band is a no joke and is devoted to this style of music. Hell they even got the king of independent roots music, William Elliot Whitmore, to guest on a track. If that's not commitment I can't tell you what is. If you're a fan of real country, or basic folk, I suggest checking this out.
Now it's clear that members of Escape the Floodwater Jug Band are, or were at one time, record collectors with an eye for aesthetics. The packaging for this album consists of a sewn piece of leather with a piece of wood affixed to each side. On the front is a simple picture of a whiskey jug and on the back is a number. While it doesn't say how many of these suckers they made I'm sure it can't be many seeing how both the picture and the number were hand burned. Inside is a photocopied comic that references some of the song titles but doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense; the basic premise is a band of animals make their way to "fun town" to get drunk. Who knows? At least it's well drawn.
