McGuckin Entertainment PR - Music - South Austin Jug Band

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2008

South Austin Jug Band at SXSW Music Festival 2008:
12:45 a.m. Saturday, March 15: Jovita’s, 1619 S. First St.
www.southaustinjugband.com
www.sxsw.com/music

SOUTH AUSTIN JUG BAND
BRINGS ITS AMERICANA ROCK
TO SXSW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2008

Fiery Picking & Fiddling
Offered on Band’s Upcoming STRANGE INVITATION

Austin, TX — South Austin Jug Band will share its progressive acoustic Americana rock — featuring agile picking and fiddling by award-winning members — when it plays an official showcase during South By Southwest Music Festival 2008 this month in Austin.

The band — with its melodic songs, other-worldly instrumentals and smart lyrics — plays its Official SXSW Showcase at 12:45 a.m. Saturday, March 15, at Jovita’s, 1619 S. First St. The showcase starts at 8 p.m. Saturday with other string bands including Quebe Sisters Band at 9 p.m. and The Belleville Outfit at 10 p.m. The show is for all ages.

Longtime fans know that when James Hyland (vocals, guitar, lyricist) championship-winning Dennis Ludiker (mandolin and fiddle), multi-instrumental Brian Beken (Suzuki-trained fiddler, guitar), Matt Mefford (bass) and Rob Kidd (drums) go for it — picking mandolin breakdowns, high-energy fiddling (often twin fiddles), trading harmony vocals, and jamming — it’s going to be spectacular.

With two nationally recognized fiddle players, the band is constantly astonishing audiences (locally, across the country and throughout Europe) and CD listeners with a stylish combination of acoustic, rock and improvisational swing that’s expanded beyond the bluegrass for which it won three consecutive Best Bluegrass Group awards. And it’s all captured on its third album, slated for release April 1, STRANGE INVITATION, which is already charting on Americana radio and was one of five Most Added the week of February 25.

Also during SXSW Music, South Austin Jug Band plays the Davis McLarty Agency Party at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at Threadgill’s World Headquarters in South Austin. During SXSW Film Festival the week before, the band plays at Austin Film Society’s Open House, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at Austin Studios, 1901 E. 51st St.

STRANGE INVITATION, with cuts including the comfy, old-but-new love song “Come to Me” and “Fall So Fast,” with its orchestrated string arrangement, was recorded all-analog at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studio outside of Austin. On “Po’ Boys in the Glovebox,” Ludiker’s mandolin takes a Bela-Fleck-lead-banjo role and Beken’s fiddle answers right back.

Austin Monthly said this about STRANGE INVITATION: “James Hyland may sing ‘I've been drifting along in the same stale shoes’ on South Austin Jug Band’s cover of Beck’s ‘Jack-Ass,’ but this group’s evolving sound is anything but stale. … The pure bluegrass of ‘Trek of Beandip Perkins’ waltzes into ‘Wheatfield of Crows’ and on to the jazz-bluegrass mash-up of ‘Po’ Boys in the Glovebox’.”

With the release comes an extensive tour by the hard-traveling band that includes the famed Strawberry Music Festival, May 21 at The Mint in Los Angeles, and visits with radio DJs along the way. In Austin, the band will play a special album release show April 4 at Threadgill’s World Headquarters.

Upcoming South Austin Jug Band shows include:
March 8, Austin Studios, Austin (AFS Open House)
March 8, All Good Café, Dallas (evening)
March 15, Threadgill’s, Austin (Davis McLarty Agency Party)
March 15, Jovita’s, Austin (Official SXSW Showcase)
March 26, The Deli, Norman, Okla.
March 27, Snorty Horse Saloon, Springfield, Mo.
March 28, Sticky Fingerz, Little Rock, Ark.
March 29, All Soul Acoustic Coffee House, Tulsa, Okla.
April 1, Waterloo Records & Video, Austin (In-store performance)
April 4, Threadgill’s World Headquarters, Austin (Album Release Show)
April 5, Chelsea’s Café, Baton Rouge, La.
April 6, Four States Fairground, Texarkana, Texas
April 11, Schotzi’s, College Station, Texas
April 12, Dan’s Silver Leaf, Denton, Texas
April 19, McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, Houston
April 25, Larry Joe Taylor’s Texas Music Festival, Stephenville, Texas
May 10, Taste of Addison, Addison, Texas
May 15, Santa Fe Brewing Co., Santa Fe, N.M.
May 16, Overlook Park, Los Alamos, N.M.
May 17, Flagstaff Brewing Company, Flagstaff, Ariz.
May 21, The Mint, Los Angeles
May 24, Strawberry Music Festival, Camp Mather, Yosemite, Calif.
June 5, Wakarusa Music Festival, Lawrence, Kan.
June 6, The Blue Light, Lubbock, Texas
June 7, Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville, Texas
June 8, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth (Concerts in the Garden series)

Interview times are available as well as press kits and review CDs.
For more information, visit http://mcguckinpr.com/mcguckin/south_austin_jug_band/south_austin_just_band.htm
Also see www.southaustinjugband.com, www.myspace.com/southaustinjugband.

Media Contact: McGuckin Entertainment PR
Heidi Labensart, 512.478.0578 p; heidi@mcguckinpr.com
Jill McGuckin, 512.217.9404 p; jill@mcguckinpr.com

# # #

Artist Information
Bio
Fact Sheet

Press Release:
Apr. 17, 2008
Mar. 5, 2008
Feb. 7, 2008

Press Coverage:
Paste Magazine
Apr. 10, 2008
Austin American-Statemen
Apr. 1, 2008
American Roots.com
Apr. 1, 2008
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Mar. 28, 2008
Austin Music + Entertainment
March, 2008
Austin Chronicle
Mar. 14, 2008
John Shelton Ivany Top 21
Mar. 10, 2008
San Antonio Express-News
Feb. 27, 2008
Austin Monthly
February 2008

Listen:
"Come to Me"
"Falls So Fast "
"Jack-Ass"
"Po Boy in the Glove Box"

Video:
"Reprise" Music Video
News 8’s Rooftop
Variety Interview