Jim Kweskin - Side By Side (1979)

Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford, Connecticut) is most notable as the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, also known as Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Bob Siggins and Bruno Wolfe. They were active in Boston in the 1960s. Maria D'Amato, known after her marriage to Geoff Muldaur as Maria Muldaur, formerly with the Even Dozen Jug Band, joined the band in 1963. During the five years they were together, the jugband successfully modernized the sounds of pre–World War II rural music. Kweskin released six albums and two greatest hits compilations on Vanguard Records between 1963 and 1970; Jim Kweskin's America on Reprise Records in 1971; and four albums on Mountain Railroad Records between 1978 and 1987. Kweskin is probably best known as a singer and bandleader, but he is also known for his guitar stylings, adapting the ragtime-blues fingerpicking of artists like Blind Boy Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt, while incorporating more sophisticated jazz and blues stylings into the mix. In 2013, the band held a reunion tour that included Jim Kweskin, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Richard Greene, Bill Keith, Cindy Cashdollar and Sam Bevan, most of whom were amongst its original members.

"Side By Side" is an entertaining collection of ragtime songs from Jim Kweskin, finding the folk singer running through familiar songs by Benny Goodman, Johnny Mercer, the Sons of the Pioneers, Fats Waller and Somethin' Smith & the Redheads. There's an endearing sense of good humor to Kweskin's versions that makes the record a charming delight.        


Tracklist:

1	The Preacher And The Bear
2	Papa's On The Housetop
3	On The Sunny Side Of The Street
4	Ain't Misbehavin'
5	Sweet Sue, Just You
6	Goody Goody
7	Side By Side
8	It's A Sin To Tell A Lie
9	Cielito Lindo
10	Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Jim Kweskin - Side By Side (1979) 
(320 kbps, cover art included)