Skiffle

Skiffle is the British do-it-yourself roots music of the 1950s, in which amateur groups performed American folk, blues and country songs on cheap or homemade instruments. A typical lineup paired acoustic guitar and banjo with a washboard for percussion and a tea-chest bass, a broom handle and string stretched over a wooden crate. Popularized by *Lonnie Donegan*, whose 1956 hit "Rock Island Line" ignited a national craze, skiffle stripped performance down to three chords and enthusiasm, filling church halls and coffee bars with thousands of teenage groups. Brief but transformative, it was the training ground for the British musicians who would soon build rock and roll.