I just bought the cd "Buffalo Nickel" from the Ramblin Jug Stompers....who play hobo music. It's guitar, mandolin, banjo, washboard, kazoo, harmonica...I'm really getting into it !!! It's fun !!  Hobo's are cool !!
 
You can hear samples at their website here.....
 
http://www.jugstompers.com/

It's not about how you make music, it's about making music!

Hobo music? Would come on eileen qualify? 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc-P8oDuS0Q
 

Thanks for the link.  I think it is "jug" music.  Never heard of "hobo" music.  Here's the online definition of the word "hobo":
A hobo is a migratory worker or homeless vagabond—especially one who is penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States around 1890.[1] Unlike "tramps"—who work only when they are forced to and, "bums"—who do not work at all, "hobos" are itinerant workers.
 
I think the groups in the ad play some song about hobos.  They all look pretty healthy and happy.  
 
Did you ever play a washboard or a one string bass (string, stick and wash tub)?  I love these groups and they would be fun to record live.
 
Rimshot
 

Ya it's a jug band. These guys are very well versed musicians who have played with many very famous musicians. They have got together to make music just for the fun of it. You can almost get the feel of sitting around a fire at a hobo camp. Boxcar Willie made the hobo songs famous years ago. It's fun music about the hobo life of riding trains, stealing chickens, hard times.....a little blues, a little bluegrass, a little boogie....... It's definitely different.

I was lucky to see BoxCar Willie back around 1980 at the Ohio State Fair.
 
I am not sure if Dexy's Midnight Runners qualifies as hobo music, though they looked like them in the video.
 
One thing that I find fascinating about hobos is their signs that they use to post somewhere around a house they visited, usually on a fencepost. They had their own language, where they indicated information such as whether the owner was kindhearted, offered food, had a gun, etc. Here's a link if interested in seeing these:
 
   http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm

Thanks for that link...lots of hobo info there !!

The story of the Hobo Nickel:

A man tells his wife, “I’ll ride the rails and write when I find work.”
No word. Nothing for so long. She asks the wandering men by the train yard if they’ve seen him.
One says, “I’ll carve his face on this nickel and pass it along. Trust a hobo nickel to find its way.” Wrapped in a note with her only wish “Come home”, he left with it that night.
It passed around. In pockets. In hat brims. In tobacco tins. Seeking its reflection. Tarnishing in its despair. Finally dropped and left behind...

Nobody. Cold, walking nowhere. He enters a shed and lies down.
A scrap of paper. Opening, he finds the words, he finds the coin.
Now walking, coin in breast pocket warming him. Somebody going somewhere.

That story was touching.  Thanks.

Cool stuff. It sounds like a very close cousin to bluegrass mainly due to the instrumentation.  
 
I've been  to a number of bluegrass events and festivals where this kind of music was being played around the campfires at the festivals. It's always fun stuff to play.