Best Band

Like the city it came from, Jug o' Lightnin' is zoning-free. You can't peg its blues-rock-bluegrass-country sound with a few pithy words -- it has shades of all but is none of the above. What it is is moss-draped, gutbucket, raw and in-the-pocket. When Aaron Loesch, Chris King and "Mopar" Mike Sinclair are rolling through one of their bayou-style trash-can symphonies, they create a vacuumlike suction that draws you inexorably to the heart of the groove. Roots bands with unique aesthetics are about as hard to find as it is to catch lightning in a bottle, and as their name states, Jug o' Lightnin' has pulled it off. Thank God for this rare instance of 100 percent unmitigated truth in advertising.