April Royal Mile Jam Pregame

Remember, everyone, the Royal Mile jam is this weekend, Sunday April 2! I hope you can all make it out!

March Fiddle Club Jam

I didn't make it to the fiddle club jam this month, but Becky Ross kept track of the tunes for me. She writes:

Here's the list from the jam session which was rather short

Atholl Highlanders
Mrs. McLeod of Raasay's Reel
Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside
Off She Goes
Tongadale Reel
The Miller
Dark Island
King George IV/King's Reel
Barrowburn/Largo's Fairy Dance
High Road to Linton
West End Hornpipe (from last month's tune list)
Highland Laddie/East Neuk of Fife
Miss Chalmers Gigg (today's music)
Willafjord/Spootiskerry
Catchin' Rabbits
Rowing from Islay to Uist
Da Auld Resting Chair
Da Road to Houll
Flowers of Edinburgh
Neil Gow's Lamentation for James Moray, Esq. of Abercarney (XIII-3)
Squirrel in the Tree
Tam Lin
Farewell to Whisky (well the A part anyway!)
Peter's Peerie Boat

I think I got them all.
Becky

Thanks, Becky!

A Plea for Sessioneers

The March Royal Mile session has come and gone, and we're teetering on the edge of it dying out altogether (again).

We only had 2 fiddlers (whose repertoires don't overlap much) and one guitarist this week. That's not a session, and it's not sustainable.

The Royal Mile is the only open, public Scottish session in the DC area, and if it doesn't work, there will be none. I'd like to make a plea to the Scottish musicians out there to mark this date in your calendar and try to make it. We really need people to start coming, or this session will die. Again.

If there's anything we (or I) can do differently to make the session better, we should definitely try it. So please, offer any suggestions you might have. The only thing that doesn't seem to be negotiable is the time and date; the management seems pretty firm on that.

But by the same token, the session is on the Royal Mile's calendar, whether or not anyone comes. Apparently some people came for the session promptly at 3:00, but when no one else arrived within 30 minutes, left. Remember, someone's always going to be there first! Start it up! Open your cases and play! I won't be on time to every one, and I won't even come to every one. Besides, this isn't my session, it belongs to all of us!

Sorry if I seem a little strident here, but I really want this thing to work, and I don't know how to do it but to plead for more warm bodies with instruments.

March Royal Mile Jam tune list

Here's the list of tunes from the March Royal Mile session. We had two fiddlers and a guitarist, with the occasional smallpipe interlude:

Hector The Hero
St. Kilda Wedding (in D)
Lament for Rev. Archie Beaton
Muckin o' Geordie's Byre/Sailor's Wife/Mithlodian Pipe Band
Soldier's Cloak
Highland Whisky/Devil in the Kitchen
Old Woman Ayont the Fire
24th Guards Brigade at Anzio
North Highland Dance #21/Skye Dance #27
Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside/Earl of Mansfield
Atholl Highlanders
Orcadia
Duchess of Bedford's Strathspey/Lady Georgina Russell's Reel
Neil Gow's Lament for James Moray of Abercairny
Highland Laddie/Cairny Mount
Hit on Staffin Island
Prince Charles' Last View of Scotland
Sleep Soond ida Moarnin'/Faroe Rum/Willafjord
Tail Toddle/High Drive
Stool of Repentance/Teviot Brig
Da Slokit Light
De'il Amang the Tailors/Timor the Tartar/Jack Daniel's Reel
Banks of Spey/Loch Leven Castle/Miss Shepherd's Reel/Jenny Dang the Weaver
Tam Lin