I'm impressed that ANYONE would take out so much time and effort to razz li'l ol' me...MUD

That does seem like a lot of effort.

"EXTEMPORANEOUS TALES FROM HOKUMVILLE" There came a time in the life of Rev C Arthur Muddbone, aka Mudboy Slim, when the most difficult thing to do was look at himself in the bathroom mirror. After years of rambling, raconteuring, and honing - to a respectable degree - his talents as a blues/rock singer/guitarist, Mudboy packed in the whole business: too many nights on the bandstand "titillating the emotional palate of the college aged and young adult audiences" had taken its toll. Flash forward through many years at a day gig as a salesman - as in traveling - and a compulsive diet of coffee, bacon, eggs, toast, burgers, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Dave Van Ronk, John Fahey, Gus Cannon, Mississippi Sheiks, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Rice Miller, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, Leon Redbone, John Sebastian, Lovin' Spoonful, Geoff & Maria Muldaur, Ry Cooder, Captain Beefheart, Little Feat, Doc Watson, Carter Family, Kurt Vonnegut, and Charles Bukowski. Days with a lap-top melded into nights with a record player, digging the likes of Martin, Bogan & Armstrong, Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Jim Jackson, Papa Charlie Jackson, Tampa Red, Georgia Tom Dorsey, Rev Robert Wilkins, Beale Street Sheiks, Washboard Sam, Bo Carter, Rev Gary Davis, Ishman Bracey, Charley Patton, Gabby Pahinui, Bob Marley, Taj Mahal, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Hokum Boys, Emmett Miller, Cats & the Fiddle, Furry Lewis, Jim Dickinson, Tom Waits, John Hammond, and Rory Block. It was a solitary existence. Then, one day, shortly before the turn of the century, a new face entered his world: The Tuz from Santa Cruz. An evening performance with the Tuz and Lou Spoltore in Nashville, TN, was perhaps the catalyst for Mudboy's maturation. In no time, his desire to perform returned. This time, however, not as a guitar wielding poseur - of which the world has so many exquisite examples - but, rather, as something new, something unique, something... One night, in a dream, a vision came to Mudboy that suggested the idea of a jug band as a viable medium for expression; not as in Lovin Spoonful and Jim Kweskin (entertainment icons, though they were), but rather as in Mississippi Sheiks, Memphis Jug Band, Cannon's Jug Stompers, and Memphis Mudcats. Mudboy seized this notion - a band as an evolving entity - a core of musicians periodically joined by other bands and musicians - constantly changing, seeking to have fun. Next, into Muds possession came a photograph from just after the turn of the last century. A band of bizarre characters holding musical instruments. What caught Muds eye in this picture, however, were the rhythm instruments: a jug and a washboard. From this image, Mudboy fashioned an idea: he would arrange music for a group like the one in the photograph, totally eschewing the tired formula of guitar-bass-n-drums. Embracing instead the sound of metal body slide guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, ukulele, bass, harmonica, bass harmonica, kazoo, and...jug and washboard! With this new- formed vision and a list of musician friends, the Rev began the task of creating a band..an 'orkestra' for the new century.

We call the band, "The Syntaurs"...MUD