On Thursday, June 25, 8 p.m. EDT I am going to do a live stream concert on the Original Sloth Band Facebook page in honour of the 55th anniversary of the very first “gig” my brother, Chris Whiteley and I did.
It was at the Bracebridge Fair Grounds and the poster read, “Dance to the sounds of the Distortions, plus a popular group from Toronto”. The “popular group from Toronto” was Tubby Fats Original Allstar Downtown Syncopated Big Rock Jug Band who eventually morphed into The Original Sloth Band. I played mostly jug and kazoo at that point, Chris played his Framus 12 string, Tom Evans played mandolin while brothers Michael and Patrick Lee played washtub bass and washboard respectively. The show was booked by Mary Tough, who Chris would eventually marry and they had 2 kids, Jenny Whiteley and Dan Whiteley.
Chris Whiteley will make a video guest appearance supported by his wife, blues singer Diana Braithwaite. Playing with me will be my son, the fabulous musician Ben Whiteley. He’ll be playing my old 20’s Gibson L-4 guitar (pictured below) that I used with the Original Sloth Band and also played on the original recording of Baby Beluga! We’ll feature many songs from the Sloth Band repertoire including songs I sang 55 years ago in Bracebridge and tunes from the three Sloth albums and our 45 rpm single. For those not familiar with the Sloths, we played an eclectic mix of jug band, swing, blues and novelty songs mostly from the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s.
p.s. This is a free concert but if you want to make a donation to the Artists you may do so from Ken’s website Store or www.paypal.me/kenwhiteley.
Check it out if you can.
Live Stream Concert on Thursday, June 25, 8 p.m. EDT
on The Original Sloth Band’s Facebook page
