The Bloody Jug Band Is Not to be Overlooked

Orlando, FL’s The Bloody Jug Band released their latest record Stranded on Halloween, which is only appropriate for a band whose majority of material leans towards the macabre. As a dark roots outfit that takes the jug band concept of music and expands on it, it may seem a little too niche for your liking.

But you can also overlook this band as just a horror gimmick if you’re not careful, which would be to your detriment. Limited subject matter or not, their debut album Coffin Up Blood was nominated for Album of the Year at Saving Country Music in 2012 from the way they showed such alacrity for songwriting, melody, and composition in such a limited approach. Their new album Stranded does much of the same (read review).

And not all of their songs are solely appropriate for scary moments. A good example is the song “Lac du Flambeau” from their new album. Translating to “Lake of Fire” or
“Lake of the Torches,” the term also refers to an Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Bloody Jug Band frontman Cragmire Pearce and percussionist Baby Dingo were both born in Wisconsin before moving to Florida, and took a trip to the state a while back to rekindle their roots. Inspired by the somewhat hellish name and the things they encountered on their visit to the reservation, the song “Lac du Flambeau” was born.

The song really is the perfect example of why The Bloody Jug Band should not just be regarded as a Halloween band. When it comes to constructing songs, these guys do it better than most of the performers receiving national acclaim. And the guitar on the track is especially tasty.

“We actually named the album ‘Stranded’ because we thought it was never gonna come out,” Cragmire tells Saving Country Music. “3 years of production, multiple studios and a ton of hiccups and headaches, but we’re happy it is finally released. It was originally gonna be a 11 track album, but we cut it down to 6 because we couldn’t live with the rest. But, now that it is out, we plan to get back in the studio over the holidays and follow this up with more quality stuff from the BJB, since we’ve got a ton of great songs backlogged.”

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