"Panama Limited Jug Band" by PANAMA LIMITED JUG BAND – September 1969 UK Debut LP on Harvest Records (February 2014 UK Esoteric Recordings 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Two Bonus Tracks) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Wildcat Squall..."

 

Taking their name from a Bukka White song about a train run by the infamous Panama Ltd – these obscure English jug-band-music enthusiasts were steeped in Black Country Blues, Acoustic Folk and Americana and were stalwarts of the vibrant Blues/Folk gigging scene in late 60ts London.

 

Always a rare vinyl LP original from late 1969 on Harvest Records (complete with Hipgnosis artwork), "Panama Limited Jug Band" was hard to find at the time and sold to a limited audience. And it has to be said that this Esoteric Recordings 'Digitally Remastered' Expanded Edition CD Reissue from early 2014 isn't exactly a whole lot easier to find either (it's been deleted a while now) - both having fallen off the face of the earth decades/years ago.

 

For sure this happy-hour hybrid music is extraordinarily dated and will not be for everyone, but if you're a lover of this John Peel-produced and championed group of reprobates - then his fantastic sounding Remaster CD is the baby for you.

 

The Audio on this sucker is truly gorgeous – remastered by BEN WISEMAN for Esoteric from original tapes. Panama Limited Jug Band made only one more album called "Indian Summer" issued one year later in September 1970 on Harvest SHVL 779 and Esoteric Recordings have also reissued and remastered that for 24 February 2014 on ECLEC 2436 (Barcode 5013929453647, also with two bonus tracks).

 

As a listen, the self-titled debut doesn't all work for me, but the cuts that do are magical in their own downhome Skiffle-shuffling kind of a way. Let's get to the details...

 

UK released 24 February 2014 - "Panama Limited Jug Band" by PANAMA LIMITED JUG BAND on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2435 (Barcode 5013929453548) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and New Remaster with Two Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (52:38 minutes):

 

1. 38 Plug [Side 1]

2. Going To Germany

3. Canned Heat

4. Viola Lee

5. Alabamy Bound

6. Overseas Stomp

7. Round & Round

8. Cocaine Habit

9. Wildcat Squall [Side 2]

10. Don't You Ease Me In

11. Rich Girl

12. Sundown

13. Jailhouse

14. Guitar King

15. Railroad

Tracks 1 to 15 are their UK debut album "Panama Limited Jug Band" - released September 1969 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 753 and in the USA on Harvest SKAO-387. The American LP (same name and artwork) had only 10 tracks, dropping five - "Alabama Bound", "Overseas Stomp", "Round & Round", "Jailhouse" and "Guitar King". Produced by JOHN PEEL - it didn't chart in either country.

 

The 10-Track US album can be sequenced from this CD Remaster as follows:

Side 1: Tracks 1 to 4 and 8

Side 2: Tracks 9 to 12 and 15

 

BONUS TRACKS:

16. Lady Of Shallot

17. Future Blues

Tracks 16 and 17 are the A&B-sides of a stand-alone UK 45-single on Harvest HAR 5010 issued 28 November 1969.

 

Musically - think Mungo Jerry circa 1970 with Kazoos, Jug bottles blowing, whooping vocals, washboards, harmonicas, mandolins, sort of foot-stomping mad Judy Henske vocals (Liz Hanns) with a slight Beefheart soundscape when the male lead sings (Denis parker) with lyrics about drinking and farming and cocaine and infidelity and jailhouses and more drinking - with a jolly good old Folk Blues time being had by all.

 

Liz Hanns handles the opener "38 Plug" while Denis does a slag-off duet vocal with Liz on "Going To Germany". But my poison is their cover of "Canned Heat" where they left-right speaker their vocals against a mandolin/national steel backdrop. It's beautifully clear as they give it "...woke up this morning with Canned Heat blues all around my bed..." But stuff like "Overseas Stomp" is bad and I can see why they dropped it from the edited US LP. "Wildcat Squall" is a fab Harmonica vs. Mandolin shuffle with Parker and Hanns sharing shouts and singing. 

 

Gorgeous audio kicks in again for the excellent "Don't You Ease Me In" where Liz sounds like she’s channelling a drunken Jo Ann Kelly egged on by locals to give it some sing-for-my-supper over by the old Joanna. Jug Band shuffle returns with "Rich Girl" where it’s all hay-wagons and whiskeys and my gal getting high (might be there in the morning if both of them don’t get killed). Our lady feels so blue in "Sundown" – another nugget in National Steel Guitar vs. Harmonica mode – journey to the madhouse cause she feels so bad (baby left town you see). A variant of "Viola Lee" was even covered by The Grateful Dead on their 1967 debut (originally done by Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band in 1966).

 

Speaking of out-there music - with its fuzzed-up lead electric guitar and rockin' out nature, the A-side of their stand alone 45-single "Lady Of Shallott" written by Liz Hanns is more Psych than Jug Band and comes as a shock (and pleasant surprise) after the Acoustic Blues nature of the whole debut album. Its B-side "Future Blues" is a Traditional done more like the LP cuts - Acoustic Blues. Crackin' little 7" single that.

 

"Panama Limited Jug Band" will not be for everyone as I said, but its ramshackle heartfelt shuffling is beloved by those who dig their Kazoo as much as they do their tales of lovers in the jailhouse with a jug of moonshine cracked beneath their feet and a lawyer's name on their lips (if they could only remember the number).

 

They would change their name to simply Panama Limited for their second and last album "Indian Summer" issued September 1970 but this is where the giggles started. Great fun and a wonderful-sounding CD Remaster - just good luck finding one...