Jug bands are musical groups that use a mix of traditional and improvised instruments - usually ordinary objects modified for making music, such as the jug(水差し), washtub(洗濯だらい)bass, washboard(洗濯板), spoons, stovepipe(ストーブの煙突), and kazoo(おもちゃの笛). Early jug bands were typically made up of African-American vaudeville and medicine show musicians. Emerging in the urban South, the bands played a mixture of Memphis blues - before it was formally called the blues - ragtime, and Appalachian music.