Hearkening back to the early days on Beale when outfits like Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and the Memphis Jug Band produced some of the most exciting music of that era or any other, The Bluff City Backsliders (Yellow Dog Records; Grade: B+)  is a bit of an anomaly on the current Memphis blues scene. The Backsliders are an old-fashioned jug band, even if they don't actually use a jug. The eight-piece band melds drums, a couple of guitars, upright bass, piano, banjo, trombone, mandolin, and, occasionally, other instruments into a rootsy acoustic brew that evokes the city's sweet, lazy, jazzy past without coming off as a costume novelty band. Individual players stand out -- especially Mark Lemhouse's slide guitar and Adam Woodard's barrelhouse piano --but the earthy, enjoyable mix is the thing as the band works their way through a series of old-weird-America nuggets, including songs from Charley Patton, Howlin' Wolf, W.C. Handy, and Blind Willie McTell ("Let Me Play With Yo' Yo-Yo," in which Jason Freeman's lascivious vocals and Michael Graber's kazoo work some sweet magic).