South Austin Jug Band

Though the South Austin Jug Band’s name is a nod to The Muppet Show’s Emmet Otter’s Jug Band, the similarities between the two groups end there. Jug-less, SAJB takes bluegrass virtuosity far beyond the aimless noodling and forced dynamics that characterize many of the “jamgrass” bands to which it is regularly compared. Whether it’s a traditional like the opening cut “Long Journey Home,” a traditional-sounding original like catchy double-shuffle “My Baby in the Sunshine,” or a Jimi Hendrix tune (the band pulls off a convincing cover of “Little Wing,” and the mandolin player quotes “Third Stone from the Sun” in one of his solos), the Jug Band crosses genres as crisply as Matt Slusher cross-picks the mandolin. Slusher calls his band “an organized campfire acoustic jam session,” and the CD has a “yeah, let’s do that one” feel that is truly refreshing.