JIM KWESKIN (1940 - )
MUSIC ::: FOLKIE ::: BOSTON FOR THE RECORD :::

Jim Kweskin is an American folk, blues, and jazz musician whose work as a singer and guitarist made him a central figure in the 1960s roots revival. He developed a distinctive guitar style that blended ragtime–blues fingerpicking with jazz and traditional forms, allowing him to bridge older acoustic traditions with a fresh, energetic performance style. Over decades he’s continued to record and perform, collaborating with long-standing musical partners and exploring the rich repertoire of early American music.

In 1963 Kweskin founded the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, drawing together a group of highly talented players — including Fritz Richmond (jug and washtub bass), Geoff Muldaur (guitar and vocals), Maria Muldaur (vocals, fiddle, kazoo), Bruno Wolfe (vocals), and Mel Lyman (harmonica, banjo) — to create an exuberant mix of folk, blues, jazz, and old-time string music. Over the course of the decade the band recorded multiple albums for Vanguard Records, performed at major folk festivals such as Newport, and helped reanimate pre–World War II rural music for new audiences by blending tight musicianship with good-humored, infectious swing. Their eclectic repertoire and spirited interplay influenced a range of contemporaries and later artists in folk and roots circles.

Kweskin’s personal and professional paths intersected with the Fort Hill scene in Roxbury, where the Lyman Family community was centered. Mel Lyman, a skilled harmonica and banjo player in the Jug Band lineup, later founded the Fort Hill Community — a communal group of artists and musicians in the mid-1960s. While Kweskin was associated with that circle and maintained connections there, his legacy rests foremost on his musical leadership and contributions to the jug band and folk revival movements, rather than on the broader ideological or social experiments of the community.