Though it was recorded more or less on a whim, the LP that Dave Van Ronk cut with The Ragtime Jug Stompers was one of the most infectiously energetic outings of his career. Van Ronk assembled the band at the behest of Village Vanguard proprietor Max Gordon, who thought the success of Jim Kweskin’s Jug Band heralded the arrival of a jug band boom. Though Van Ronk didn’t share Gordon’s optimism about the project’s commercial prospects, he assembled a crack band of players, including guitarist Danny Kalb and multi-instrumentalist Sam Charters. The musicians were old friends from the Village folk scene, and their evident camaraderie lends a warm glow to this exuberantly performed set. While most of the era's jug bands sought to imitate the bluesy, medicine-show sound of outfits like The Mississippi Sheiks, Van Ronk cast a wider stylistic net. On this record, The Jug Stompers turn in first-rate versions of everything from jug band standards like “K.C. Moan” to jazz obscurities like Stuff Smith’s tea-head anthem “You’s a Viper” and Vess Ossman’s turn-of-the-century ragtime curiosity “Saint Louis Tickle.”