The unique musical form known as jug band music can be traced to Louisville, Kentucky , where by 1910 there were several jug bands. They were specially popular among southern black musicians.

Centers of musical activity were river port towns such as Memphis and New Orleans, where these musicians entertained in the many speakeasies and dance halls that thrived in these cities.
While the backbone of the jug band sound was the blues, the repertoires of these bands were culled from a wide variety of musical styles including country dance, string band, ragtime, jazz and popular music. These songs often had a light-hearted, comical, ribald flavor.

An example of such a song in The Blacksmith's Fiddle is : Same Old Man, sung to the accompaniment of fiddle & washtub bass.

In addition to playing standard blues instruments like the guitar and harmonica*, jug band musicians made use of instruments more commonly associated with country string band music, like the fiddle* and banjo*. But, the cardinal feature of this music (and the origin of the name "jug band") was the use of a variety of homemade instruments to produce unusual melodic and rhythmic colorings. These instruments included the kazoo, washboard*, spoons* ( these last 2 are also frequently used by cajun and zydeco bands) washtub bass*, jews harp, and, of course, the empty whiskey jug.

*instruments played in The Blacksmith's Fiddle

Willy, a devil, plays the « forge bellows-drone-o-thon »: an invention by Polo Burguière. It's used to accompany a celtic melody : Silver Dagger.

Mabel accompanies Joe's fiddling on Sweet Susan with her hair sticks - on his fiddle.