our pride and joy.

I've talked a little talk about our Jug Band, our front porch pride and joy. Well this little jug band {inspired by neighborhood hootenanny, Emmett Otter and his muppet friends and brought to life by my brother Josh & my mama} has added a little bit of magic and a whole lot of joy to our world.

Sometime over the summer our favorite neighborhood shop down the street and new friends at Imogene + Willie, had a jug band with swing dancing at one of their weekly Supper+ Song evenings. Collin & I danced while Lindsay and Katie W watched this awesome jug band and shared sweet memories recalling a childhood favorite movie, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. Please note: if you talked to Lindsay you would think this movie won an Oscar, but it was a dear Christmas tradition in her family to watch this movie every year, so she holds it close to her hart...however, not many folks have heard of it

So after leaving this insanely fun and fairytale hootenanny, Lindsay shared the movie with my brother Josh, who then went home to GA and made a washtub bass, what we considered the vital instrument for our jug band. My mama shopped around all the farm and feed stores and finally found a washboard. Josh brought them back to Nashville where we all watched the movie....and our jug band came to life.

You see, we all kinda fell in love and identified with Emmet Otter. He loved his mama, even broke some rules to make their life better, he loved his friends {a porcupine, beaver and muskrat} more than life and he found joy in the simplest and sweetest songs, a single jug and a hole in the washtub.

So that night, on our front porch the Foggy Front Porch Holler Jubilee Jug Band was born. We started with a jug (Laurel: and her massive amounts of hot air), washtub bass (Collin: a natural as he is an everyday bass player), washboard (Lindsay: girlfriend is good and darn cute doin it), acoustic guitar (Taylor: his ability to play anything & by ear makes him our cornerstone), banjo (Josh: he's brilliant, he is) and tambourine (Laurel: her favorite).





As our popularity (ha!) has risen, we've added a mandolin (Taylor/Josh), kazoo (whoev/Falon), additional guitars (Drake/whoev), fiddle (Brian) and train whistle (Alex). Though our original band consisted of we five, our front porch gets a lot more lively and that much more fun, with new voices and extra instruments.




oh yeah, and sometimes when my brother's not in town, I strum a lil strum on my banjo too.


Everybody likes to get in on the action.
Even mine and Collin's moms got to play along when they came to town.


Magic, I tell ya.

Our first song was straight from the Emmet Otter movie, naturally: Barbecue. This song is catchy, clever and just damn cool. We made it our own that first night and even recorded a video of ourselves to email home and share with our folks. They all thought the videos {there are several, I only linked one!} were awesomely awesome and kinda funny. And the McMullen family {Lindsay's folks} sure grin big when they hear about us bringing Emmet Otter to life.

We haven't recorded anything else to share, but our play list is getting deeper. The crowd and band favorite is John Prines' In Spite of Ourselves, hands down....due to the spectacular duo vocals from Lindsay & Taylor.

We sing a old favorites like Willie Nelson, a classic Beatles hit and we all pitch in to the front porch favorites: OCMS's Wagon Wheel, John Prine's Paradise, classic Robert Earl Keen, Drake White Originals, etc..

So what started with...a dreamy night at a neighborhood hootenanny, a girl named Lindsay who had a childhood love of Emmet and his jug band, a brother & mom who have the coolness to go out and make a washtub, and darn cool and talented friends who live for weeknights and weekends on our front porch: strummin, sangin, tappin and lovin'...has turned in to this special little thing we call the Foggy Front Porch Holler Jubilee Jug Band, our pride and joy.

*look for us soon in a town near you :)