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A down-home stompin good time
Jake Leg Stompers bring turkey-billy-jug bash sound to Crimson Moon
1125JakeLeg
The Jake Leg Stompers bring their brand of blues music and humor Saturday to the Crimson Moon Cafe in Dahlonega.

Jake Leg Stompers

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Crimson Moon Cafe, 24 North Park St., Dahlonega

Tickets: $14 in advance, $16 day of the show

More info: 706-864-3982

After the turkey is gone and the in-laws say goodbye, cure your despair with a little pre-World War II stomp and blues music.

The Jake Leg Stompers will put on a "turkey billy-jug bash" Saturday at the Crimson Moon Café in Dahlonega.

The group is known for its unique brand of music made with an array of instruments, including guitar, banjo, kazoo,
washboard and spoons. Oh, and a saw, too.

Co-founder Bill Steber, known on stage as Hambone Willie Nevil, said his love for the blues inspired him and fellow musician Jersey Slim Hawkins to create the Stompers.

"We decided what the (Nashville) locals needed was a big dose of stripped-down, chicken-fried, prewar, hokum-billy, funner-than-a-squirrel-in-your-britches, we're-only-in-it-for-the-beer-money, jug band music that reminded people of music's primary mission: Selling beer and making tail feathers shake," he said.

The Stompers hail from a self-proclaimed world headquarters in Bucksnort, Tenn., an unincorporated hamlet located in Hickman County. They have recorded six albums under the HooDoo Records label.

The latest sampling released this year, "Hill Country HooDoo," offers melodies such as "Field Mouse Stomp" and "Sherman's Monkey Business."

Donning period costume and using vintage instruments, the Jake Leg Stompers have been performing since 2004 in Nashville and throughout the Southeast, using a style that evokes early 20th century medicine shows.

"If, along the way, we introduced people to the joys of American music from a time when all music was acoustic and folk music was still dangerous, then so be it," Steber said.

"We are thrilled to be playing at the Crimson Moon on Saturday and want to remind everyone in northern Georgia that missing the Jake Leg Stompers right after Thanksgiving would, literally, be detrimental to your health."

Hambone Willie Nevil's advice would be for you to turn off the old Victrola, jump in your jalopy and head to the Crimson Moon. Your gran'daddy would be proud you did.