Skiffle Bands and Jug Bands in Scotland

A little history for all you cats (and kittens) out there who are "yearnin for the learnin"...

Early Jug Bands were typically made up of African American vaudeville musicians who found themselves unable to find work as entertainers after vaudeville died. They resorted to playing a mixture of Memphis Blues (even before it was formally called the blues), Ragtime, and Appalachian music on street corners for tips.

Most bands usually include "regular" instruments, like guitar, fiddle, or banjo; however as many musicians often had to sell their regular instruments to survive, they resorted to using home-made homemade instruments like kazoos, washboards, washtub bass, and, of course, big whiskey jugs (which were used to simulate a Tuba).

It is these home-made instruments that gave Jug and Skiffle Bands such a destinctive and fun sound.

Skiffle music is similar and is the British adaptation of Jug Band music. People in Britain after World War II got the idea for skiffle from listening to Jug Bands from the United States. Many people had limited money then and enjoyed creating a band by making their own instruments.

Just to show you how influential Jug Band music was, can you guess which World-famous band started out as a Skiffle Band?

Answer - The Beatles.

Stonemen Jug Band

The Stonemen Jug Band are the only Jug Band in Scotland using teabox bass, washboard, kazoo, and jug as well as conventional instruments such as guitars, harmonca, clarinet, and banjo.

The Stonemen are principally a 4 piece band but very often can contain up to 7 or 8 musicians depending on the needs of the gig.

The band have been active for around four years, performing at many venues in the West of Scotland, including appearances at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall during the Celtic Connections Festival.

Their music is based on the songs of the original Jug bands of the 1920's, such as Gus Cannons Jug Stompers and the Memphis Jug Band. The Stonemen also blend in the influence of country blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy and Rev Gary Davis.

The music is intended to be entertaining and fun - but also faithful to the tradition of the many great artists who originally performed this type of music.

The Stonemen have recently completed recording their first album.

Music Samples

Here are some samples of their work. Just double-click on the link and it should start playing in Windows Media Player within ten seconds.