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:
Meg Gray. This E minor reel has a lovely, haunting sound and (from my perspective as a guitar player) beautiful chords.
Last week’s tune:
The Tooth Fairy (La Fée des Dents), a jig by André Brunet. Check out the video of André himself playing it in 2008.
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- Maiden’s Prayer, originally from Poland, a popular Texas Swing hit in the 1930s by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and played around here as a waltz(?). Well, I suppose it qualifies as North Atlantic…
- Waunlwyd War Cry, This Welsh polka must rank as the most cheerful sounding war cry on record!
- Tobin’s Favourite Jig, one of my favorite traditional(?) Irish(?) jigs. Do you know anything about its origin or region? Let me know via the suggestion form.
- The Mouth of the Tobique, a wonderful three-part reel from New Brunswick with some nice syncopation in the C part. From the Perth-Andover area where the Tobique River enters the Saint John. Don’t miss the great accordion rendition by Sharon Shannon starting at 0.49 in the YouTube video (she seems to open with the C part).
- Off to Flamborough, a jaunty new hornpipe by multi-instrumentalist Peter Clayton in England. He writes, “Flamborough is a village on the east coast of Yorkshire, UK. It is situated approximately 20 miles south of Scarborough (of Scarborough Fair fame) on the prominent coastal feature of Flamborough Head.” (east-north-east of York and Leeds –AJ)
- The Pleasant Beggar by Russ Barenberg. Another of Russ’s wonderful melodies. Don’t miss Russ playing the melody on guitar about half way through the YouTube video.
- Cloud Forest Waltz, by Michael Bell of the Iowa-based Barn Owl Band (possibly now disbanded?). See a link to a short bio of Michael in the Notes section.
- 1814. No, this is not “In 1814 we took a little trip / Along with Col. Jackson down the mighty Mississip”. It’s either 1) a Danish tune written in celebration of the amalgamation (?) of Sweden and Denmark in 1814 (?), or 2) a Swedish slängpolska from Södermanland, take your pick. Either way, it’s a great tune.
- Soldier’s Joy, arguably the most popular traditional tune of all time. Listen to ten of the many dozens of versions around the world in the Notes section, plus a YouTube of a Norwegian circle dance set to Soldier’s Joy.
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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.