Fritz Richmond, 66, Master of Jug and Washtub Bass
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Fritz Richmond, a folk musician considered one of the world’s finest players of the jug and washtub bass, died of lung cancer Sunday. He was 66.
Born in Newton, Mass., Richmond became a key figure in the Boston folk music scene, where he worked as the house bassist at Club 47.
Drawing on his expertise as a U.S. Army helicopter mechanic, he strung the washtub bass with a steel cable, turning it into a usable instrument. To play it, he developed his own steel-and-rawhide gloves.
He won national attention in 1963 with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, where he learned that he’d be playing the jug as well as washtub bass.
In the early 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles and engineered albums for Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and others. He moved to Portland in 1977, but still taught recording classes and played in the Metropolitan Jug Band and Fritz Richmond’s Barbecue Orchestra.
He made appearances on “A Prairie Home Companion” and continued to tour with John Sebastian’s J-Band and with Muldaur. The Smithsonian has one of his washtub basses in its collection.
