Free Hot Lunch!

Among folk festivals, few acts matched the sheer eccentricity of Free Hot Lunch as a performing trio. Serious material such as “Home of the Whales” and a close-harmony version of John Sebastian’s “Lovin’ You” lay within their range, yet the group gravitated toward playful, tongue-in-cheek numbers that blended Jimmy Buffett and the Beach Boys sensibilities—“Sex in a Volcano,” “Sex By Mail,” and “Sidewalks on Parade” among them. They poked fun at post-celebration misery in “I Hate to Wake Up in Nebraska” and pondered the mechanics of penguin affection on the title song of their first album, Penguin Love, despite the trio’s location far inland from any coastline.

Jeff Berg on guitar and vocals, John Corning on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, and vocals, and Jeff Laramie on guitar and vocals supplied the core of Free Hot Lunch, shaping a buoyant style that evoked sandy footwear and an eagerness for surf. Their breakthrough release Penguin Love took shape in the studio with additional contributions from Randy Sabien on violin, Jeff Eckels on bass, Todd Steward on drums and percussion, John Torrell on drums, Kathy Mueller on keyboards, and Frank Furillo on harmonica. Their final album, Eat This, captured a live performance at Orphans in Chicago on October 28 and 29, 1988.