This Saturday, the Queen City’s premier (only?) jug band, The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs, celebrate the release of their new album, Goin’ to Cincinnati, at Arnold’s Bar and Grill (210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, arnoldsbarandgrill.com). Showtime is 9 p.m. and there is no cover charge.
The Pigs will also be celebrating an impressive recent accolade. In early September, the group was inducted into the Jug Band Hall of Fame (jughall.org). The band will be presented with its induction award at Saturday’s show.
The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs formed in the late ’60s around the Folk revival/Queen City Balladeers scene in Cincy. Along with various other dates around the area, the band has performed its incredibly charming brand of old-timey Americana once a month at Arnold’s for more than 30 years. The Pigs lineup features founding members Eric Buhrer on jug, kazoo and whistle; Ed Horning on banjo, uke and harmonica; and Keith Baker on washboard and mandolin. Newest member Eric Evans plays guitar and longtime Pig Tom Beck holds it down on bass. Evans, Buhrer, Beck and Baker all sing on Goin’ to Cincinnati.
Along with their solid chops and dedication to the purity and preservation of pioneering American musical formats, a huge part of The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs’ appeal is the sense of fun and humor that oozes from their music. It’s hard to be in a bad mood after listening to Goin’ to Cincinnati (unless kazoos and songs about beans somehow make you irrationally furious), which features mostly upbeat renditions of classic and traditional Blues and Folk songs — many of the songs are public domain and all have copyrights that date back no later than the mid-’30s. As the band’s page on cdbaby.com says, “If you love to wallow in misery and self-pity and your taste in music runs to the bleak and bitter, the Pigs will make a mockery of everything you hold dear.”
Highlights on Goin’ to Cincinnati include the Hank Williams-popularized “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It,” the manically silly “Digga Digga Do,” “Wipe It Off,” a rollicking ode to keeping clean seats, jellyrolls, tools and baseballs, and the swinging title track, a song written in the ’30s by Cincinnati bluesman Walter Coleman. (Coleman’s version is featured on the Play It Like You Did Back to George Street: An Anthology of Cincinnati Blues 1927-1936 compilation local Shake It Records issued in 2012.)
To read more about The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs extensive history and find information on their various releases and upcoming performance schedule, visit cincinnatidancingpigs.com.
Cincinnati Entertainment Awards Accepting Nomination Suggestions
For the 2015 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, the public will have a chance to be involved in the process of choosing the nominations from Greater Cincinnati’s amazing music scene. Previously, nominations came directly from the nominating committee, which consists of a variety of local music aficionados (writers, bloggers, club owners, etc.), while the public voted for the winners. The nominating committee members still have final say in who gets nominated, but this year the members will be presented with your feedback before making their final decisions.
Here is the link for your input: citybeat-survey.wehaaserver.com. Get your feedback in ASAP — the ballot will close at midnight on Dec. 5.
Here are some basic guidelines from the online ballot:
“For the first time ever, fans will have input into the nomination process for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. For each genre category, please enter the name of the performer you feel is deserved of a CEA for their work in 2014. Recordings released publicly between November 2013 and November 2014 are eligible for Album of the Year nominations. The New Artist of the Year category is for artists who have emerged in that same time span (they don’t have to have formed in that date range, just broken through for the first time).
Nominations are reserved for artists from Greater Cincinnati making original music. Please, no straight-up cover bands. You may only fill out one ballot per email address; additional ballots will be discarded.”
A list of the top vote-getters in each category will be presented to the nominating committee. The members will not be restricted to voting only for artists nominated by the public, because some deserved acts may not actively campaign for nominations and the CEAs honor output and accomplishments and not just who has the biggest Facebook friends list. The “long list” compiled from public votes will get more artists’ names in front of the nominating committee and help their chances for making the final “short list” of nominees.
After the nominating committee determines the final nominees, the public will be able to vote for the winners at citybeat.com. The final ballot will be online soon. The CEAs will be awarded at a ceremony in late January (more details TBA).
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com or @
CityBeatMusic
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2014.