Tunes

Tune : Kitchen Gals

This is a great old-time dance tune that Gordon and Jane play at local contra dances. It has a great major/minor feel starting out in A Mixolydian with a c# in the A Part and changing to A minor in the B Part.

Tune : Deer Walk

This tune is from the seven CD collection Kentucky Mountain Music published by Shanachie Records.This version was recorded from the playing of Kentucky fiddler Doc Roberts.

Tune : Pipe on the Hob

This tune version hails from Co. Leitrim/Co. Sligo via box player Michael O'Brien. He came to Tallahassee with fiddler Des Collis and a Sligo delegation. In my tune collection Tallahassee Irish Tune Book I chose D Mixolydian as the key. I could have chosen D Mixolydian for the A part & D major for the B Part as I've done here. Or I could have chosen D major & simply put in the natural signs in the A part & twice in the B Part. Tomas O'Canainn had a term for this in his book Traditional Music In Ireland. P.

Tune : Carter McKenzie

The reel "Carter McKenzie", written by Prince Edward Island fiddler Kevin Chaisson, comes from my fiddling friend Emily Beck. Emily attended the Leahy Music Camp and was in Kevin Chaisson's fiddle class. She sent me an MP3 of it. A slightly different setting can be found on thesession.org. I like the Bm chord in the A & B Part that adds a bit of color to the tune. It's a clever tune that is both low & high in the A Part.

Tune : The Cats of Camazen

At the last First Saturday Session at The Warehouse Pub, The Bothys (formerly Bothy Gals), namely Yvonne and Maddie, played this tune on dualing penny whistles. The melody in the A Part has two longer phrases that wraps around on itself. We looked it up on thesession.org. Here it is with added trebles in the B Part.

Tune : Bus Stop

This is a tune I learned from Kevin Burke's CD OPEN HOUSE. Recently we played it at the Sparrow Music Camp and I couldn't find it in my personal ABC2 files. So, I looked it up on thesession.org but it was not the version I remembered. After listening to OPEN HOUSE Track 1, it came back. It's a great tune that I'm sure you'll find interesting. In the B part in the 7th measure, I prefer playing F natural then F# in the same measure.

 

Tune : Paddy on the Railway

Paddy on the Railway

Verse 1: In eighteen hundred and forty-one,  I put me corduroy breeches on, I put me corduroy breeches on, To work upon the railway.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Tune : Over the Waterfall

"Over the Waterfall" is Jane Scott's favorite old-time dance tune. An interesting feature of this tune is that it starts in G in the A Part (c natural) and changes to D major in the B Part. I've heard that you can tell if a tune originated in the states because the A Part will be in a higher register than the B Part. Most tunes have a lower A Part and a higher B Part. The A Part has a melodic motif in phrases 1, 2, & 3 that sounds like water flowing down. Recorded with Jane's 5-string fiddle on Track 3 OLD TIME DUETS.

Tune : Midnight On the Water

"Midnight on the Water" recorded on Jane & Gordon Scott's OLD-TIME DUETS CD was the first waltz that Jane learned from fiddler Charlie Engstrom of Tallahassee. She swings the 8th notes slightly which can't be notated but listen for it on the recording. Jane picked up this way of playing waltzes from listening to the playing of local fiddler Lindsey Smith formerly of North Carolina. It was written by Texas fiddler Luke Thomasson and continues to be a favorite tune for waltzes at the Tallahassee contra dances.

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