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Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan, Chris Barber
From America’s perspective, 'Skiffle' music is a pretty strange bird, since it takes our indigenous music styles and runs them through an extremely English filter, turning them into something else entirely different than what they were. For example, the blues provides the structural basis for most Skiffle material, but Skiffle interprets them in a lighthearted and breezy manner. For example, Leadbelly’s songs figure prominently in Skiffle, but without the pathos that is an inherent part of their root basis. New Orleans jazz, in its original form, also plays a hugely influential role in Skiffle’s style, but without the sense of risk and daring that New Orleans jazz stood for. The result is a type of music that celebrates American culture without necessarily getting it right, so it ends up becoming something else.
Lonnie Donegan was a big Skiffle star when John, George, Paul and Ringo were still sneaking through backyards and playing church fetes. He was playing with Chris Barber all over England and releasing hit after hit. Van Morrison was just barely out of knee pants when these guys were big, and to paraphrase Van, it was ‘in the days before rock and roll’- in England anyway. This CD celebrates the genre by combining the talents of these three men for an undoctored concert in Morrison’s hometown of Belfast.
The results are loose, fun, and spontaneous, if unremarkable. Skiffle music is definitely NOT going to make a comeback, but for a while it was the most spirited music available in the United Kingdom. These guys lived it, and The Skiffle Sessions is a simple trip down memory lane. It isn’t the kind of record that stands up to repeated listens, and the more casual the circumstances, the better it sounds. Mostly, it’s a small slice of history that probably makes more sense on the other side of the Atlantic than it does here, despite its American roots.
Grade: 
 
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