I had the pleasure of discovering The Blair St. Mugwumps recently, due to one of their number being featured on our "Cover" for our May issue. We got into conversation and I asked these campy jugband folks just what they were up to, and where they came from and lots more. Talk about re-inventing yourself.  I still have no idea what their mothers called them when they were born, but inventive they all are, and this is how our delightful exchange went:

So this is Rev. Jazzbo Pappy Hamhock here to field the interview for y'all. Have fun with it and remember, be careful what you ask as you may receive an answer.

1. Rev. Jazzbo Pappy Hamhock- banjolele, banjolin, harmonica, vocals, jug, kazoo, other random gadgetry
2. Darlin' Clementine- tenor banjo, ukulele, vocals, kazoo, musical saw, guitar
3. Professor Greasy Leatherbreeches- resophonic guitar, fiddle, harmonica, 5-string banjo
4. Cookie L'amour - washtub bass, vocals, gams
5. Dr. Jobydiah 5-ball Hudson III (Featured on the cover of May's Victory Review) - washboard, plectrum banjo, vocals, kazoo, whistling
6. And that's the basic line-up that can usually be seen at one of our performances. Its always in flux and subject to addenda and omissions.

[VR] When and why did you start playing together? How did you find one another?

[Rev JPH] Joby and I met amidst a barroom brawl. I was going through a divorce and a bottle of whiskey, and my opponent, who is now our spiritual advisor, was going through a table, when Joby managed to swoop in and deftly save all of the beer. We've been inseparable every since. Not long after that we met Professor T.S.(too sweet) Whiteman and started playing in the back beer garden of Sam Bond's garage, a local music venue/bar on Blair Blvd. We'd jam till the real bands got ready to play and give us the stink-eye.  Darlin' Clementine came aboard after running away from home and hopping freight trains around the country till the romance wore off. She was kid sister to our friend Kit Stymie Stovepipe (Inkwell Rhythm Makers, Crow Quill Night Owls, Maria Muldaur and her Garden of Joy). She wanted to join a jug band band herself so we took her on and had her play musical saw to keep her out of trouble. Now she keeps us out of trouble and is quite the accomplished musician. She can play circles around me now. Cookie, well she came on after the dust settled from her and my divorce and the romance with Kit Stovepipe (Clementine's big brother who after helping to end Jazzbo and Cookie's marriage turned us both on to reams of amazing pre-war music. A good trade-off in my opinion) had fell apart.  We stuck a tub in her hand and she ain't stopped thumping yet. Incestuous little tome ain't it? Well you asked for it. Last to hop on our little boxcar named Desire was Professor Greasy Leatherbreeches. We solicited him at one of our shows. We were in the market for a guitarist, having lost T.S.  to fertility and our second, Creamy Sanchez to creative differences.  It was the best idea we ever had, asking him aboard, and it really separated our sound from the herd of jug bands blooming at the time.

We are occasionally joined by our original guitarist and co-founding member, Professor T.S. (too sweet) Whiteman, and are always glad to have him aboard.

[VR] Other bands you've (the members of your current band) been in?

[Rev JPH] Jobydiah (5-ball) Hudson has played with the Sour Mash Hug Band , Inkwell Rhythm Makers, Anne's Complete Tumbledown Souvenirs, Conjugal Visitors, Bad Mitten Orchestra, and That Damed Band (which was the band for the 999 Eyes Carnevil and Freek Side Show and sometimes sits in with Brody Douglas Hunt and Crow Quill Night Owls.

Greasy plays with Molasses, an old-time hillbilly/gypsy swing band here in Eugene. Darlin' Clementine has played with the Bad Mitten Orchestra, Brody Douglass Hunt, Crow Quill Night Owls and Inkwell Rhythm Makers occasionally and Mrs. Fisk and the Learned Alchemist of Macedonia. I played in the Crow Quill Night Owls and the Gin Mill Sallys. Cookie has played with many New Orleans area street bands as well as Cheap Perfume and the Gin Mill Sallys. Currently we're all pretty monogamous.

[VR] It seems like you have a very grassroots philosophy for your music -- earthy and basic, back to simpler times, use what you have (jug band philosophy), and from there you just have fun.  I especially like the "unapologetic anachronism".

Its a long story, all tied together with a deep love for the music of Pre-World War II America. In a time before mass media generated, commodified culture, there was a purity of music that was distilled down through the generations and through genuine human interaction and cultural exchange. Local eccentricities were embraced rather than forced to conform to a cultural standard. The Blair Street Mugwumps coalesce around this revolutionary idea; that there was a time not so long ago, before the dumbing down by media, that humans were able to develop their arts more freely than today, and with greater skill due to less distractions and less psychological flooding of instant imagery. This is the goal of the band; to reclaim that creative freedom rural America distilled throughout the Southeast in the early part of the last century. We're not naive to the problems of the era, and we address them in our song choices. Many issues addressed then are as pertinent today. We draw influences from the early jug bands of Memphis and Louisville, the hot Jazz or New Orleans and Chicago, The Hillbilly music of Appalachia, the blues of the Piedmont and Mississippi Delta. The huckstership and comedy of the Traveling Medicine Show and Vaudeville, and the rowdyness of Tin-Pan Alley. We are unapologetically anachronistic. Sometimes to generate new growth, you have to take cuttings from a root.

[VR] Describe your best audience and venue?  What kind of events do you play where folks just can't get enough of you?

[Rev JPH] Hands down the street corner is the best venue. Busking is where we feel at home. We never quite felt comfortable on an elevated stage. The best time we ever had performing was to an audience of winos on Ballard St. in Seattle.

[VR] What's your ultimate direction for your act/band?

[Rev JPH] If we make good, fun music, educate the world a bit as to our sources, and manage to pull in the equivalent of a minimum wage salary in the process, we will feel successful.

[VR] Do you write your own music?

[Rev JPH] We do a few originals. Brand new old songs we call em. I wrote most of the lyrics with Clementine working out a bunch of the music. There's so many old tunes that are just perfect, we don't feel the need or drive to do a whole slew of new stuff. We play the music we like to hear mostly.

[VR] How many times at folklife now?  How was that experience for you this year?

[Rev JPH] This was our 4th folklife. The rains took a lot of the emphasis off of getting out there to busk up the dough away and herded is into covered areas where we did more hanging, jamming and socializing than past years. It was a blessing in disguise because we became more acquainted with bands we'd seen for many years but were too busy getting in line for a spot to get to know each other on a personal level. I think it was our favorite folklife to date as a result, and we learned more about what the festival really is, a learning and bonding experience for us geeks who love this often uncool music. There's so much out there to learn. Folklife to us is part haj, part college, part Olympics, and all family.

[VR] You said several members are full time musicians -- who? How do you work that out with the folks in your band who are not full time musicians?

[Rev JPH] We do the best we can. Occasionally some members may not be able to make a show or tour, and we've all worked very hard to be able to fill the gaps left when this happens so that the audience has a consistent experience from show to show regardless of who shows up.

[VR] What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

[Rev JPH] Traveling the world, meeting other musicians and exchanging knowledge and skill with them. We're about to embark on our first tour east of the Rockies and beyond to play in some of the areas where the music we love and play percolated into existence such as Louisville, Memphis, the Piedmont of Carolina etc. Again not to beat the metaphor to death but its like a pilgrimage of sorts.

[VR] What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?

[Rev JPH] The business end!!!!!  We want to play music exclusively but, especially with the recession, it is very difficult to make a living at it. Music is a luxury that many cannot afford these days. And though alcohol is a fairly depression-proof industry, many of the more unscrupulous bar owners have evoked the recession as a means of skimping on compensation for musicians.  Direct result- day jobs, less live bands, more karaoke! Stop the insanity! Tip your musicians!  Prevent the invasive karaoke blight!

[VR] Recordings past or upcoming? Tours upcoming?

[Rev JPH] We've done two homespun recordings. The first is "Leanin' with Intent t'Fall" recorded in 2008 with our former guitarist, Creamy Sanchez. Next is our recent release, "The Olio" with the current lineup. We're touring in support of that self-produced endeavor starting August.

[VR] Where did you get your name?

[Rev JPH] We couldn't come up with a name. We wanted Blair Street in the title cuz that's where we got our start, on Blair Blvd. in Eugene where there's a small cluster of bars amenable to local upstart acts. Blvd. sounded too pretentious so we went with Street. Mugwumps came about when we couldn't make up our mind on a name. Mugwump is an Algonquin word for chief, which entered the American vernacular, meaning someone who takes themselves more seriously than others do, and later meant one who could not make up their mind. It was also, we were soon to discover while researching patent medicine advertising cards, a slang term for syphilis, not to mention the creepy creatures penned by burroughs in naked lunch. Only after having established ourselves a bit by this moniker did we learn of John Sebastian's pre-even dozen jug band act called the Mugwumps. Just a coincidence. Now we're stuck with it.

[VR] And what brand of snake oil do you sell?

[Rev JPH] Snake oil - we would never resort to such chicanery and flim-flamery. We deal strictly in high quality nostrums constituted of the finest herbal proprietary ingredients such as our signature brand  "Tipsy Tapeworm Vermifuge and Pain Extractor" and the ever-popular "Corn Slum Healing Salve and All-Purpose Ointment." we also offer our line of retro-sexual male cosmetics, including "Hot Lips Self-Warming Moustache Wax" and "Hygienic Hobo Campfire Scented Soap." we have since discontinued our "Old Scratch Fire Cider" and "Billabong in a Bottle Miracle Mineral Salts" pending further litigation.