Mulebone

Mulebone
Origin	New York City, NY
Genres	Piedmont blues, Delta Blues, Roots
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Red Tug Records, Ellipsis Arts
Website	Official Site

Members	Hugh Pool John Ragusa

Mulebone is an American blues based duo of roots music specialist singer/guitarist Hugh Pool and multi-instrumentalist John Ragusa.

Biography

The combo originally formed in 1996 to play at the Brotherhood of Thieves on Nantucket Island.^[1]

Their original cassette release, Mulebone was recorded on ADAT in Hugh's apartment in 1996 and sold several hundred copies on their repeated visits to Nantucket.

The group continued to perform, slowly expanding their area of operation and repertoire. In 1998 the duo took half the music that was on the original cassette, recorded 5 new songs and put out a CD also entitled Mulebone. This one featuring their signature laughing donkey on the cover.

In 2000 the group got noticed by Alan Pepper, owner of the New York City venue, The Bottom Line, and a run of shows at the venue began. Over the next 2 years Mulebone was twice featured on The Downtown Messiah,^[2]^[3]^[4] Commander Cody, The Bob's, Lena Katroukis, Al Stewart, and Al Kooper and the ReKooperators.

They were featured, along with Sweet Honey in the Rock, Maria Muldaur and David Grisman on the award winning Ellipsis Arts compilation album, American Lullaby.^[5] Their own album Mulebone, was a collection of traditionals, and charted in the Top 100 on the "Americana Roots Chart" for National radio airplay, as reported by the Album Network.^[6]

Discography

Albums

1999 Mulebone (Red Tug Records)
2010 New Morning (Red Tug Records)
2011 Bluesville Sessions (Red Tug Records)

Compilation albums

2003 American Lullabye (Ellipsis Arts)

References