Index: Lib/shutil.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/shutil.py	(revision 86482)
+++ Lib/shutil.py	(working copy)
@@ -353,7 +353,8 @@
     archive_dir = os.path.dirname(archive_name)
 
     if not os.path.exists(archive_dir):
-        logger.info("creating %s" % archive_dir)
+        if logger is not None:
+            logger.info("creating %s" % archive_dir)
         if not dry_run:
             os.makedirs(archive_dir)
 
Index: Lib/test/test_shutil.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_shutil.py	(revision 86482)
+++ Lib/test/test_shutil.py	(working copy)
@@ -340,6 +340,33 @@
                 shutil.rmtree(TESTFN2, ignore_errors=True)
 
     @unittest.skipUnless(zlib, "requires zlib")
+    def test_make_tarball_new_directory(self):
+        # creating something to tar
+        tmpdir = self.mkdtemp()
+        self.write_file([tmpdir, 'file1'], 'xxx')
+        self.write_file([tmpdir, 'file2'], 'xxx')
+        os.mkdir(os.path.join(tmpdir, 'sub'))
+        self.write_file([tmpdir, 'sub', 'file3'], 'xxx')
+
+        tmpdir2 = self.mkdtemp()
+        unittest.skipUnless(splitdrive(tmpdir)[0] == splitdrive(tmpdir2)[0],
+                            "source and target should be on same drive")
+
+        base_name = os.path.join(tmpdir2, 'new', 'archive')
+
+        # working with relative paths to avoid tar warnings
+        old_dir = os.getcwd()
+        os.chdir(tmpdir)
+        try:
+            _make_tarball(splitdrive(base_name)[1], '.')
+        finally:
+            os.chdir(old_dir)
+
+        # check if the compressed tarball was created
+        tarball = base_name + '.tar.gz'
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(tarball))
+
+    @unittest.skipUnless(zlib, "requires zlib")
     def test_make_tarball(self):
         # creating something to tar
         tmpdir = self.mkdtemp()