Jamboree goers will be treated to a dose of the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band and its special brand of humor, music and good, clean fun. Members of the band will be presented with the annual Blue Blaze Award at approximately 6 p.m. on Saturday night at the Jamboree.
According to the group’s biography, “From the pastoral hills, hollers, shopping malls and interstate highways of Goodlettsville Tennessee, home of Bill Monroe, Bashful Brother Oswald, Stringbean, Grandpa Jones, Keith Whitley and some living country music performers, comes the most entertaining "blast from the past" since Lester Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys. They’re the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band -- five guys and a scrubboard, with roots like wisdom teeth.
“The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band have shamelessly stolen a feature of the old Roy Acuff Show -- a bit known as "Pap and the Jug Band". There’s only so many graveyard numbers or raunchy love songs that even the most rabid country audience can sit through without some kind of relief. This frolicking fivesome brightens up the stage with rib-tickling old time tunes. Even better, they have an utter lack of self-consciousness (and some might say any sense of decorum). The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band not only know the music, they wear the costumes, tell corny jokes and even do slapstick gags that throw a cable-tv-numbed audience into hysterics.”
The band has performed worldwide including performances on the Grand Ole Opry and as regular guests on the Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV.
Founded by the late “Lonesome” Lester Armistead, who grew up around Roy Acuff‘s Smoky Mountain Boys along with his brother, Jack. Their father was co-owner of a bait store with Howdy Forrester, Acuff’s fiddle player. His powerful tenor singing recalled the late great Bashful Brother Oswald, who taught Lester to sing.
While he could pick a mean banjo, he was most recognized for playing an antique jug owned by his mentor. Armistead passed away in May 2014, at the age of 71.
The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band soldiered on, however, and Armistead’s son Mike, continued playing with the remaining members of the band, adding some members along the way. Current band members include Leroy “The Tennessee Slicker” Troy (Banjo, washboard, and vocals), Mike “Li’l Mikey” Armistead (dobro and vocals), “Handsome” Dan Kelly (fiddle), Mike “Spider Man” Webb (dobro and guitar), and Ernie “Sir Cecil” Sykes (bass fiddle).
“The Sultan of Goodlettesville,” Leroy Troy has performed his old-time banjo act at the Knoxville World’s Fair, on Hee Haw, and at concerts and festivals all over the world. His banjo style is the clawhammer or frailing style, distinct from more commonly found Scruggs style banjo playing in modern bluegrass. Troy often uses a washboard with various sound making devices affixed to it. Troy debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in 1988 and was the National Old-Time Banjo Champion in 1996.
Mike Armistead shares sings high tenor and harmony, and also serves as the group’s booking agent and manager. He operates his own record label in Goodlettsville, and was a graduate of the very first International Bluegrass Music Association Leadership School. He also serves with the Nashville Fire Department.
Dan Kelly won the Grand Masters Fiddle championship in Nashville in 1983, and was soon hired by Roy Acuff to replace his mentor, Howdy Forrester, in the Smoky Mountain Boys. Since Acuff’s death in 1992, Dan has played with several country music stars, including Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis, Steve Wariner, James Bonamy, Faith Hill, Jessica Simpson and SheDaisy.
Mike Webb also learned to play under the tutelage of Bashful Brother Oswald, and spent several years playing dobro for Wilma Lee Cooper on the Grand Ole Opry.
Long Island, New York, native Ernie Sykes has played with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno and the Bluegrass Cardinals.
The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band has recorded five albums, have had a music video featured on CMT and GAC, and can be heard on the soundtrack of the Faye Dunaway movie, Yellowbird.
