A new tune each Wednesday (more or less), chosen arbitrarily by your Webmaster, a mixture of traditional and new but traditional in style tunes. Site visitors are encouraged to nominate tunes for this page.
This week’s tune:
The Mortgage Burn. This Cape Breton reel was composed by Gordon MacLean and we learned it from Jerry Holland. Back in the good old days we liked to play it in a set we called the Obama Set, with Money in Both Pockets and Banish Misfortune.
Last week’s tune:
Mrs McGillicuddy, Composed by our own Susan Reid, this sweet, jaunty reel sounds Irish but is really from here in Vermont.
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- Frank’s Reel, a lively Scottish reel with some nice syncopation in the B part, by John McCusker.
- Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine. Would this reel (or march?) have African American roots? Anyway it sounds southern USA to my ears.
- November Waltz, aka Valse du mois d’Novembre, by Jean-Claude Mirandette, originally from Quebec, but very popular in New England, this lovely waltz seems to eloquently express the closing-in of the weather and the shortening days as winter approaches.
- Neil Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Second Wife. A haunting slow air by Niel Gow, the most famous Scottish fiddler of the eighteenth century.
- Lay Down Your Weary Tune, well, actually a song this week, which many consider Bob Dylan’s greatest.
- Bussen, a haaling from Sweden. Suggested by Susan Reid who describes a haaling as “a vigorous dance culminating in kicking a hat off a broomstick held by a young lady standing on a chair…. or something like that.”
- Burnt River Jig by Canadian composer Brian Pickell, inspired by the story of that Ontario town’s interesting name. See the Notes section to learn that story.
- Da Brig, From Shetland, this jig plays well in a set with Lay Dee at Dee and da Slockit Light.
- Brenda Stubbert’s Reel, by the late incomparable Jerry Holland, a great example of the Cape Breton reel.
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- Background: I started this site about twelve years ago largely for my own convenience, but it quickly grew to be useful for a number of other musicians in my area. Since then it has grown far beyond my original vision, with over 1,100 tunes posted and around 6,000 user sessions per month from more than 30 countries. Until now I have built and maintained the site out of my own pocket but its increasing size and complexity is requiring more outside resources and costs; hence this appeal. So if this site is helpful to you, please consider a small contribution.