Bands with a lot of History: How the bands of the Annual Jug Band Freak Folk Jubilee got to know one another
- Liz Curtin
- Dec 1, 2025
- 3 min read
The Third Annual Jug Band and Freak Folk Jubilee took place on Friday, Nov. 21 at The Plus and was scheduled from 8-11 p.m. Attendees at the event heard music from The Sliced Bread Jug Band, The Wet Stetsons and The Driftless Revelers.
The show started on time with The Silced Bread Jug Band, which currently has five members, although band member Joe Thielen said this number has fluctuated over the years. Current members include Thielen, Bryce Black, Gibb Krohn, Greg Hirsch and Harry Warden.
Thielen said they make a lot of their instruments: a drumset made of garbage can lids, another set of drums made of suitcases, gloves with bottle caps attached to the fingers and a slide guitar made from an ironing board.
Krohn said he even fashioned a bass out of a washtub and a string from a weed wacker.
Thielen said the ironing board guitar once won the award for “Best Homemade Instrument” at the Battle of the Jug Bands and guesses that it may be one of their oldest instruments, at over 100 years old.
The band also has a washboard and, of course, a jug. Even though the jug now has some cracks in it, Black plays it as he always has.
“I’ve been playing the same jug for twenty years, but it did get glued back together after I tripped over Harry’s pitbull,” Black said.
Black said the pit bull, Molly, was fine but has since passed away.
The band that followed them was The Wet Stetsons. According to VolumeOne Tickets, this is the first year that The Wet Stetsons have joined the event.
Andrew Simser, lead guitarist and Blugold alumnus, said they have only been a band for three years and said they got connected to this event through The Driftless Revelers, as their bands are very close.
Simser even said that he and The Driftless Revelers banjo player, Ben Nelson, lived very close to each other as kids.
“Other than my brother, I think I’ve known Ben as long as anybody in my life,” Simser said.
Simser said he met Lou Carver, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, about seven years ago at Melon Jam.
Carver said he hopes in the future to take the band out of the state, with their current farthest venues having been in Duluth, Minnesota and Appleton, Wisconsin. Simser said his goal would be the Rhymann Auditorium.
The event ran late, as The Driftless Revelers didn’t take the stage until after 11 p.m. However, before they could set up, Thielen went up to a microphone and made an announcement.
“If you leave before The Driftless Revelers play, I will kick your ass,” Thielen said.
When the Driftless Revelers did play, they played a few songs before making an announcement of their own: It was their guitarist, Matt Sayles’, birthday.
Sayles is the founder of Philville Records, named after the convenience store owner who worked across the street from where Sayles first recorded.
The Driftless Revelers release under Philville Records and Sayles said that both Simser and Thielen will release solo records through Philville Records.
Sayles said he’d been in bands before, such as Frostbitten Grass, but didn’t form The Driftless Revelers until 2020, after he had moved to Eau Claire. According to Philville Records, the members met at an open mic night.
“I met a lot of the Eau Claire musicians in 2019 when I came to town, and it was a musician named Jeff White that was hosting an open mic up in Chippewa Falls,” Sayles said. “That was kind of the origin story of how we all connected, but it was Ben and I who met first, and we’ve been friends ever since.”
Sayles said he met even more after the COVID-19 pandemic. As far as the Jug Band and Freak Folk Jubilee goes, The Driftless Revelers and The Sliced Bread Jug Band were the first bands of the event, but Sayles said he gives Thielen credit for having the idea.
Fans can see the Driftless Revelers at their next show, The Driftless Revelers Holiday Spectacular on Friday, Dec. 19 at The Firehouse.
Curtin can be reached at curtinem5864@uwec.edu.
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