The Christmas Jug Band with Special Guests Bonnie Hayes plus Beso Negro - An All Ages Event

It's almost that time of year, and for the first time this year, the Christmas Jug Band threatens to lighten the door of George's. This irreverent crew of stalwart purveyors of the juga-billy mystique is a seasonal assemblage of misfits of Commander Cody alumni and others from various notable Bay Area musical aggregations.

What got started from a Wild Turkey-inspired momentary lapse of sanity is now, four albums and 30 years of fruitcakes later, an unconventional holiday tradition of highly skewed merriment. One never knows exactly what form this 100% acoustic folk-skiffle-swing jug band will take from one season to the next, but those who attend will get a full dose of tongue-in-cheek holiday “highjinks.

Jugheads who have appeared the past include: Austin de Lone (Elvis Costello, Fabulous Thunderbirds), Paul Rogers (Those Darn Accordions), Tim Eschliman (Etta James, Jesse Colin Young, Rhythmtown-Jive), Ken "Snakebite" Jacobs, Gregory Leroy Dewey (Country Joe & The Fish, Mad River), Blake Richardson (Bobby Hebb), Dan Hicks, Jim Rothermel (Van Morrison), Anthony Paule (The Johnny Nocturne Band) and Lech Wierzynski (California Honeydrops).

Opening this show will be an electric set by Beso Negro! They have an all-star lineup of internationally experienced musicians who have brought drive and passion to Gypsy Jazz. Taking the hint dropped by the likes of The Pogues, Gogol Bordello and Flogging Molly, Beso Negro has transformed a genre into a vibrant new beast. Darker, faster, more danceable, more blues, more Gypsy, Beso Negro's indelible fingerprint brings Jazz Manouche to a new generation and to the 21st century.