A Beautiful Racket: In Newfoundland, the Ugly Stick Is an Instrument in High Demand

This year, Dave Rowe, owner of a decades-old music store in St. John’s, N.L., found himself in a peculiar yet pressing situation: he was out of ugly sticks, and the man who made them was retiring. The ugly stick is a Newfoundland percussion instrument, often made of a mop handle stuck in a rubber boot and festooned with rows of bottle caps punctured by protruding nails. They are particularly popular at O’Brien’s Music, which has been selling a variety of Newfoundland instruments since 1939, Mr. Rowe said. O’Brien’s takes its reputation and its ugly sticks seriously, and Mr. Rowe said he hunted for five months before finding another ugly stick maker whose product could pass muster....