Makeshift Hammer makes 'gutter-folk' music, a proprietary blend of bittersweet ballads, crooked stories, and thumping blue rants on mandolin, bass guitar, and assorted junk foot-percussion described by Bruce Warren of WXPN as "a bluesy version of Nick Cave with a nod to Tom Waits."

In 2026, after twelve years playing as Driftwood Soldier, they released a song by the same name, "Driftwood Soldier," and announced that the duo was now called Makeshift Hammer.

The wide range of their bass-heavy story-telling music best captured by their album, Stay Ahead of the Wolf, which was produced with Erin McKeown, mixed by Grammy winner Ted Hutt (Old Crow Medicine Show, Lucero, Devil Makes Three), and got kind writeups in all sorts of outlets from national (Billboard) to regional (like Red Line Roots in the Northeast).