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:
L’Aire Mignonne by Simon Riopel, a beautiful Quebecois slow air. Don’t miss the YouTube video of Simon and friends, Rencontre de Violoneux, playing it.
Last week’s tune:
Paddy on the Handcar, aka Paddy on the Turnpike. This reel is so popular as to qualify as a chestmut, perhaps because it’s so much fun to play.
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- La Fille du Boucher We learned this traditional French waltz from the late David Surette. We play it in D although David, on his album, Return to Kemper, played it in G. La Fille du Boucher translates as ‘the butcher’s daughter’.
- Vigers Polska. If you like syncopation, you’ll love this tune from Sweden, more precisely a hambopolska.
- Possum Up a Gum Stump, A very danceable old-time reel. Note particularly the wonderful fiddle rendition in the first of the two YouTube videos.
- Pumpkin Rim Waltz, another great tune by our own Susan Reid. Pumpkin Rim is a geographic feature in the township of Braintree, Vermont. Harmony in the MP3 played by the late David Kaynor.
- 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.
- Mrs McGillicuddy, Composed by our own Susan Reid, this sweet, jaunty reel sounds Irish but is really from here in Vermont.
- 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.
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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.