Wait a second. Did he say "washboard?" Yep. Washboard. In fact a Columbus Washboard Company Standard Family Size galvanized model 2090 as played by the Black Twig Pickers on stage on The Friday Night Jamboree.
Washboards have long been a staple of traditional mountain music and the Black Twig Pickers put it to good use, along with guitars, banjos, spoons and just about any other utensil they may have on hand.
For the record, the Columbus Washboard Company in Columbus Ohio is the only American firm that still makes washboards and they recognized some time ago that not a lot of people still use their product to actually wash clothes, so their web site promotes the board and their other products as decoration and musical instruments.
The company notes:
While the Amish, campers, soldiers, students and others still use washboards to scrub clothing, others have discovered the boards make unique decorative pieces for laundry rooms, family rooms and kitchen walls. Woodcrafters have found applications for these one-of-a-kind tools as coffee tables, cabinets, magazine racks and other types of furniture. Washboards have even caught the ears of professional musicians, who use them as percussion instruments for jazz, rhythm and blues performances.
Also, for the record, the Black Twig Pickers are equally adept at more traditional musical instruments like guitar, banjo and fiddle (below).
