The Denville String Band is northern New Jersey's only Mummers-style band.  It is in its year entertaining people at parades and concerts.  The band plays traditional music from Tin Pan Alley through the 1960s with a sprinkling of newer songs.  Band members are all ages from high-school to retired and come from all over Morris County.  The band owns its own clubhouse at 10 Station Rd. in Denville where it rehearses, stores instruments and equipment, and holds social events.  There is no charge to be in the band.

Parades

The band marches in 6 to 8 parades a year in colorful Mummers style costumes.  Most parades are in northern New Jersey but the band ocassionally ranges further afield.  With its elaborate costumes and prancing captain in the lead, the band is always a big hit with parade crowds.

Concerts

The band typically plays 8 to 10 private and public concerts throughout the year at various indoor venues and summer-time events all over northern New Jersey.  For concerts, the band wears it's standard concert attire of black shirts and khaki slacks.  The band has played on beaches, in church halls, nursing homes, gazebos, private homes, and even once in a cemetery.  Even without its Mummers costumes, the band's music invariably fires up the crowd.

Our Instruments

The backbone of the band is its suite of saxophones, drums, accordion, and strummed 4-string banjos.  Clarinets, guitars, fiddles, tambourines, glockenspiel, and string bass round out the sound.  Non-musicians help in numerous ways too.  Like all Mummers bands, the Denville String Band doesn't include brass instruments such as trumpets or trombones

Social

The band's culture is fun-loving and convivial.  Parties, barbeques, and other social gatherings throughout the year paid for by the band are popular.  Most are held at the band's clubhouse.