Bluff City Backsliders

What’s old is new as one of the Bluff City’s favorite jug bands The Bluff City Backsliders return to the Center for Southern Folklore Store.

The Bluff City Backsliders have been performing for ten years now and are playing better than ever as the overflow crowds that show up at their concerts will surely testify.

The Backsliders came together when several veteran Memphis musicians discovered they shared a hankering for the great old sounds from the pre- World War II era. Together they created a hearty repertoire of early jazz, jug band, old-time country, and proto-bluegrass tunes that cried out to be resurrected. Eventually they brought these songs down to clubs on historic Beale Street, where, ironically, most of them had not been heard in over 75 years.

These almost forgotten songs morphed into a high-powered, hip-shaking, barrelhouse hoodoo music that's as profane as it is glorious. At bottom, it’s a wholly Southern musical sound, reaching from Memphis to Appalachia and all the way down to New Orleans, often all at once. Performing with a back-porch soul and the ferocity of the best punk bands, the band brings a new-fangled sensibility and lot of youthful energy to a deep heritage.

http://www.myspace.com/bluffcitybacksliders