Hutton will ship a crateful of appropriate instruments to Boonville prior to the festival so he can loan them to workshop participants. To avoid the unwieldy baggage for his return flight, he is hoping to sell the instruments to those who want to take up the music more seriously. Hutton says despite the workshop title the session is open to all ages, so kids can bring their parents or parents can come alone. The workshop session should last about an hour and is free to the public.

“Recently, I did this for senior citizens at a Washington D.C. synagogue,” Bruce says. “The youngest in my jug-band was 88, and the 92-year-old was great on the washboard. It was a bit like playing with George Burns, Ethel Merman and Hennie Youngman.”

The jug band is a grass-roots form of string band or jazz band that uses simple folk instruments like guitars, banjos, harmonicas and kazoos and makeshift ones like the washtub bass and empty jugs. The musical style hit its height of popularity in the 1920s and 30s when early mass distributed recordings included various regional and folk styles of American music. The jug band was equally popular among communities black and white, rural and urban.

Hutton's band, the Double Decker, is renowned in the folk scene for their musical exploration of a time when America went from chorus lines in the 20s to bread lines in the 30s. Hutton, fiddler Bill Schmidt and guitarist John Beam are all multi-instrumentalists and vocalists, and Hutton is particularly known for his banjo and mandolin playing. The group will be part of festival's evening concert Saturday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at Thespian Hall.

This year marks the eighth Big Muddy Folk Festival which is sponsored by the Friends of Historic Boonville with financial assistance by the Missouri Arts Council.