James Hyland, former singer/guitarist for the newly defunct South Austin Jug Band, begins a month-long Wednesday night residency at the Saxon Pub this evening. With a band of old friends that includes Warren Hood, Will Dupuy, Noah Jeffries, Robb Kidd, and Kim Deschamps, he’ll be introducing some new songs along with some Jug Band favorites. I spoke to him about the SAJB breakup, a new direction for his music, and his new band.
Geezerville: What can you tell me about the South Austin Jug Band breakup?
James Hyland: I guess we felt like it was time to allow everybody to feel as though we weren’t as committed to each other as we’d been. Kind of like, “Let’s take a break and just decompress. Get off the road for a little while and focus on whatever they want to focus on.” That’s pretty much it.
G: No hard feelings?
JH: No, not at all. I imagine we’ll still be playing and making a lot of music together.
G: The new band has some familiar faces in it. How did that come about?
JH: I guess over the last nine years, as I’ve kept the Jug Band chuggin’ along, I’ve just called upon my friends to play and this was really the same thing. I honestly didn’t think much about it until the Statesman pointed it out. They kind of added to the confusion with the way they titled the article, as if I had changed the name of the band. But really I was just calling buddies to help me play some gigs. It’s just the same guys I’ve always been calling.
G: What kind of material are you going to be playing on Wednesday nights?
JH: We’re working on a lot of new stuff. I’ll be playing some old Jug Band stuff too. You know, if I wrote it, I’m going to reserve the right to play it. The fun thing about the new stuff is that I have a bunch of great pickers playing with me, but it’s not going to be about a bunch of flashy solos. It’ll be a little more of a mood instead of just showing up, whipping it out, and throwing it around. It’ll definitely be more singer-songwriter oriented instead of just getting up there and doing a bunch of easy songs that we didn’t need to rehearse.
G: So this is kind of a new direction for you.
JH: Yes, it is. I guess it’s still there, we can do the reunion show if we have to, but I’ve really just put it to rest. I’ve made my peace with it. I’m just ready to go be James Hyland. I wanna do shows where I play with a band and I wanna do shows where, if the setting is appropriate, just play by myself.
This article appears in January 30 • 2009.