Deep Fried Pickle Project
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Kudos to the folks at SPPS! Because we “Pickles” started out as a Jug Band, preservation of old-time music is of utmost importance to us. We cut our musical teeth on the very backbone of what has become to be known as the “Americana” genre. I only wish SPPS had been around when I first began to discover quality music. As a parent, I am happy that future generations will be able to listen to, learn from, and enjoy these musical treasures.
- Daniel Daniel, Deep Fried Pickle Project
The Deep Fried Pickle Project are school teachers by day and trailer trash troubadours by night. They pride themselves on making juggabilly music that would make Hee-Haw’s Grandpa Jones shake, rattle and roll over in his grave. Founded in ’00 as a jug band, ‘DFPP’ now embraces other American roots music forms as well. Bluegrass, Folk, Rockabilly, Blues and Honky-Tonk tunes pepper their set lists. The recent musical phenomenon’s performances include hillbilly-style punk-rock covers and rollicking original tunes. Fans, known as “gherkins”, turn out in droves during concerts. Their style has been compared to “The Sex Pistols meet the Beverly Hillbillies”. The music is “a snapshot of America’s Heartland”, says the South Bend Tribune. According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, DFPP’s family performances “leave parents and kids pickled pink.”
Besides performing for children the “DFPP” perform adult venues too, where their stage presence is altogether spicier. Recent performance venues include summer festivals, breweries and clubs throughout Indiana, Michigan and the Chicago area. The Pickles have opened for Canadian folk legend Fred Eaglesmith and Keyboardist Vince Welnick of the Grateful Dead.
The band was featured in an episode of ‘Postcards From Buster’, a spin-off of “Arthur” on PBS Kids, which has millions of viewers worldwide. “We immediately fell in love with them,” said (Buster) series producer Natatcha Estebanez of The Deep Fried Pickle Project. “They’re fun, they’re funky, they represent an interpretation of American Culture where you can throw a bunch of cool things together and make music out of it.”
Their second album, ‘Attack of the Pickles’, was released in September of 2003. About the CD, M-Live calls it, “Hilarious and inventive”. Its single, ‘Picklejuice’ won a John Lennon Songwriting Contest Finalist Award for 2003! 2004 saw the release of “Live From the Trailer Trash Tour”. An upcoming studio release is anticipated for 2005.
Members are Alan Selvidge on guitar, gbongo, gourd,mandolin, stupf-fiddle and vocals; Daniel Boone Daniel on washtub, vocals, mouth-harp, and kazoo; Jerry Hoffman on lead acoustic guitar and vocals; ‘Slim’ Jim McAllister on washboard-zilla and drums. Daniel’s 5-year old “Gherkin” Max also sits in on baby washtub and vocals.
The Pickles are available for low-key acoustic duo sets as well as concerts with the whole band including guest fiddlers and banjo players.
