This year, Dave Rowe, owner of O’Brien’s Music, an established music store in St. John’s, N.L., encountered an unusual and urgent issue: he had run out of ugly sticks, and the craftsman who made them was retiring. The ugly stick is a traditional Newfoundland percussion instrument typically made from a mop handle, a rubber boot, and decorated with bottle caps and nails. Mr. Rowe’s music store has been selling a variety of Newfoundland instruments since 1939 and holds a serious reputation for their ugly sticks. Mr. Rowe embarked on a five-month long quest to find another ugly stick maker with products that met O’Brien’s Music’s high standards.
Ugly sticks are closely associated with mummering, a festive Newfoundland tradition during Christmas, in which people dress in outlandish costumes and visit neighbors while singing and drinking. The instruments are also a staple at the Mummers Festival held in St. John’s. A recent ugly stick-making workshop at the festival drew around 50 attendees, and the room was soon filled with the sounds of metal bits rattling on nails and the sharp smacks of rubber boots striking the floor.
Lynn McShane, the festival’s executive director, explained that ugly sticks are favored by mummers due to their loud and easy-to-assemble nature. Wade Jones, a well-known ugly stick player, attributes his long-lasting career to the sturdiness of his personalized ugly stick, which features a wooden shoe on the bottom of the mop handle and metal discs for jingles instead of traditional bottle caps.
While there are no known traditional recordings of Newfoundland songs featuring the ugly stick, they remain a popular instrument for parties and social gatherings. Mr. Rowe is also a musician and provides “crash courses” on the ugly stick inside his store, especially during the summer when the store sees a lot of visitors. As of early December, O’Brien’s Music had about a dozen ugly sticks left in stock, and they anticipated running out before Christmas.