Skiffle : A brief history (Part 1)

We can begin our exploration of what skiffle is by looking at its entry in wikipedia.

It's a musical style combining jazz, blues, folk and roots influences, often featuring home made instruments. The style we know as skiffle originates amongst African-Americans in the early part of the 20th century, and featured many 'home made' instruments, due in no small part to the poverty those African-Americans would have experienced on a daily basis. Necessity is the mother of invention.

The first use of the word 'skiffle', on record, appears in 1925, with Jimmy O'Bryant' & His Chicago Skifflers.

Here's an example of O'Bryant's band on disc.

Jimmy O'Bryant's 'Washboard Blues'

The word 'skiffle' was still in common use in the 1940s, as the following record by Dan Burley & His Skiffle Boys demonstrates.

Dan Burley & His Skiffle Boys

Note that one of the guitarists on this record is Brownie McGhee. Brownie, best known for his work with Sonny Terry, had something more of a country blues approach to guitar, but the duo certainly played songs that wouldn't be out of place in a skiffle band's repertoire.

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's 'Born & Living with the blues'

Shortly thereafter, the word 'skiffle' appears to fall into dis-use in America. We'll return to some aspects of the blues, and its role in the skiffle boom, as the blog develops but for now, in 'Part 2' of a brief history of skiffle, I'd like to concentrate on the 1950s revival in the UK.

After that, we'll begin to backtrack a little.