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:
Vigers Polska. If you like syncopation, you’ll love this tune from Sweden, more precisely a hambopolska.
Last week’s tune:
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.
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- 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.
- 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.”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP?
- Did you notice that this site has no ads? Your donation will help keep it growing and advertising-free.
- 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.