Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group belonged to the wave of skiffle that swept through the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Skiffle is folk music with influences from American folk, blues, country, bluegrass and jazz, played on a mixture of ordinary and home-made or improvised instruments. The style comes from the United States, where jug bands in the South played blues and jazz on washboard, jug, washtub bass and comb and paper. In England skiffle became wildly popular in the 1950s, played by, among others, Lonnie Donegan, the Vipers Skiffle Group, Ken Colyer and Chas McDevitt.

Music and breakthrough

British skiffle grew out of the post-war jazz scene, where people moved away from swing to traditional jazz. Lonnie Donegan sang and played guitar, accompanied by, among other things, a washboard and a tea-chest bass, and played American folk and blues songs, mainly from the repertoire of Lead Belly, in a lively style. The music was cheap to make, because anyone could start a group with a guitar, a washboard and a home-made bass. Freight Train from 1957 belongs to that time.

Influence

Skiffle was important for many musicians who later became known in other genres, such as the Quarrymen, the later Beatles, Tony Sheridan and Rory Gallagher. The style is regarded as an important stepping stone to the second British folk revival, the British blues boom and the British Invasion of American pop music.

Listening

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  Freight Train · Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, 1957
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