About Me
Longtime Portland folk troubadours Chris "Zydeco Skeeter" Miskow and Pat Buckley have revived the band they originally founded back in 1993. The Pagan Jug Band's current incarnation features an all-acoustic lineup of banjo, dobro, accordion, fiddle, guitar, upright bass and percussion, deftly mixing straight-ahead bluegrass, folk and country blues, and Louisiana Zydeco. The material is drawn from a variety of classic country, folk and roots sources, along with a large body of original songs.
The Pagan Jug Band plays twice a month at the Clinton Corner Cafe (every other Tuesday, 6:30pm - 8:30pm - SE 21st & Clinton). We are also playing Monday happy hours at the Alberta Street Pub through the first half of October (6:30 - 8:30pm, NE 11th & Alberta). Come on down and check it out!
A review from the June 2000 Portland Mercury:
PAGAN JUG BAND
(Laurelthirst) For visitors to the Rose City, no doubt eagerly awaiting the opportunity to watch goat-head-costumed heretics lead the jamboree, the Pagan Jug Band is not noticeably connected to pre-Christian ritual. Their songs are packed with drunkenness and sex and the wages of sin, the musicians have the look of men once involved in bloodsport, but they have rather little to do with any organized religion. Organization itself, they have something of a problem with. As long as anyone can remember--okay, at least a decade--the boys have met up a few times a month for a remarkably eclectic set of acoustic free-for-alls. With members on bass, drums, washboard, banjo, and guitar (and whatever else someone happened to bring) supporting the enormously charismatic frontman Pat Buckley, they perform most every type of music, from bluegrass to Celtic to old-time funk and beyond, with an infectious vigor and memorable form. (Well, to be fair, they play every type of music that fits comfortably with a man playing the washboard. Speed garage, say, rarely gets a chance.) The banjo player is alternately known as Skeeter for the hillbilly numbers and Jean-Claude for the Cajun songs, when he plays an accordion. More bands should be like this. JAY HORTON
