The Original Sloth Band @ Hugh’s Room

The Original Sloth Band @ Hugh’s Room

The Original Sloth Band

60th Anniversary Show

Friday, June 20, 2025

Hugh’s Room - Toronto, ON

On June 20, 2025 The Original Sloth Band will be celebrating their 60th (!!!) Anniversary with a concert at Hugh’s Room Live (296 Broadview Ave., Toronto).

Original members Chris and Ken Whiteley will be there along with longtime drummer Bucky Berger, Ben Whiteley on string bass and Drew Jurecka on fiddle and horns. 

In late June of 1965 Chris and Ken Whiteley had their first “gig” with Tubby Fats Original Allstar Downtown Syncopated Big Rock Jug Band (which in time morphed into The Original Sloth Band).  The gig was at the Bracebridge Fair Grounds and outside the venue was a three toed sloth, a connection that eventually led to the renaming of the band.  Along with multi-instrumentalist Tom Evans, Chris and Ken went on to record three albums, tour all over North America, appearing at dozens of festivals, forming a musical friendship with legendary Chicago piano player Blind John Davis and recording and appearing with Leon Redbone on Saturday Night Live.  

Their music is an eclectic mix of blues, swing and novelty numbers with rich vocal harmony, played on “more instruments than a hospital operating room”. Chris plays guitar, harmonicas and trumpet while Ken plays guitars, piano, mandolin, accordion, banjo, jug and washboard.  Adding both the clarinet and fiddle (which Tom Evans originally played) will be the fabulous Drew Jurecka. 

The original “rhythm section” with Tubby Fats was Patrick Lee (washboard) and Michael Lee (washtub bass).  In the 1970’s the Sloths began playing with Mike Gardner on string bass.  Bill Bryans (formerly of Downchild and later Parachute Club fame) was the drummer in the late 1970’s.  In 1980 Bucky Berger took over the drum stool and has been there ever since (including at the June 20 Hugh’s Room show). Ben Whiteley has been great filling the string bass chair for the infrequent reunions of the last decade or so.

Many people don’t know that the original jug bands of the 1920’s were blues, jazz and black southern vaudeville based.  The Memphis bands like the Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannons Jug Stompers featured banjo, mandolin and harmonica along with guitar and jug.  Other groups like the Dixieland Jug Blowers and Clarence Williams Jug Band featured horns and piano along with banjos, jug and washboard. 1960’s folk revival groups like Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band and Dave Van Ronk’s Jug Stompers also incorporated Fats Waller and other swing music in the mix.  The Original Sloth Band extended those influences going all the way back to a cappella Georgia Sea Island songs and forward to some 50’s jazz standards, Chicago blues and even a bit of 60’s R&B.

Over 60 years of music making, musical skills have increased, matured and deepened but the same sense of joy and fun that first brought them popularity in the folk and blues worlds of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s has only gotten more special. Whether you are a fan from decades past or have never heard them before, this is a rare chance to experience one of Canada’s most unique and uplifting ensembles.

Click here for tickets