Back in the mid-to-late 90’s I played with a jug band called the Cornlikkers. Comprised entirely of profoundly overeducated graduate students at the University of Illinois, we kicked around East Central Illinois for a few years before graduation and attrition did us in. We had the distinction of having a classically trained juggist who could sight read as well as downstate Illinois’ finest yodeler, Ryan Jerving.

Our recorded output is pretty meager. We cut the Phil Ochs tune ‘Hazard Kentucky’ for an unreleased tribute album, and then we cut some demos in the loft apartment Ed Burch and Jay Bennett shared on Reo Speedwagon way in Champaign.

This mp3 is a cassette transfer, so the audio quality isn’t great. I cleaned it up as much as I could, but the high end has long since disappeared as so much ferrous oxide in a cheap car stereo. The tune is the old jug band standard, ‘Tear it Down (Bedslats and All)’ (Bedslats is sometimes spelled ‘Bed Slats’). It’s me on the lead vocal, with Ryan Jerving and Chris Scales doing the nice high harmonies.

tangleweed.org/blog/uploads/The_Cornlikkers_-_Tear_it_Down.mp3

The lineup for the recording is:

1. Riley Broach, bass
2. Ryan Jerving, baritone ukulele and vocals
3. Kenneth Rainey, mandolin and vocals
4. Jim Randall, jug
5. Chris Scales, acoustic guitar and vocals
6. Bill Whitmer, banjo ukulele

The tracks were recorded onto an ADAT, and then mixed to cassette using a little Mackie board. Ed Burch engineered the recordings, and Bill Whitmer and I did the mix.