December Fiddle Club Jam

Thanks to Karen and Tom Grycewicz for hosting this month's meeting. We had some great tunes, all named after bridges, one of which made it into the jam.

The closing jam included fiddles, a piano, a hammerd dulcimer, a bodhran, smallpipes, and a silver flute at one point. Here are the tunes we played:

Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside
Spey in Spate
The Tongadale Reel
Smith's a Gallant Fireman
The Crooked Bridge
Lochanside
High Drive
The Shetland Fiddler
Sailor's Wife/The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre/The Stool of Repentance
Prince Charles (slow reel)
Dick Gossip's/The Mason's Apron
The New Fiddle/Andy DeJarlis' Jig/Calliope House
Prince Charles' Last View of Scotland
Mrs. Johnston's Reel
Jenny Dang the Weaver/The Ale is Dear/The Forest Lodge/The High Road to Linton
Flowers of Edinburgh/The Barrowburn Reel
Because He Was a Bonny Lad/Lord Seaforth/Miss Drummonf of Perth/Put Me in a Box
Rowing From Isla to Uist
Cutting Ferns
Crossing the Minch
Banjo Breakdown/Paddy's Leather Breeches/Tripping Up the Stairs

A Policy on Royal Mile Cancellations

I was sad to learn that a few people arrived to the session before I did, only to leave when they were told that the Royal Mile was hosting another event.

This is the second month this year we've been canceled on. September we had warning, but I'm pretty sure no one was told this time. If I have warning for future events, I'll announce it here and in the fiddle club general email, and I'll also leave info at the Royal Mile in advance.

Relocating the session was such a great success this time, I'd like to make that a policy and a promise.

If the Royal Mile has canceled our session, stick around until several of us arrive. We will decide on where to go and reconvene there. We'll leave word of where we're going (and a map) with the Royal Mile's bar staff for latecomers. If you show up late, and it's cancelled, ask the bar staff for the map.

But I want to make this promise: we will do everything in my power to make sure this session happens, whether it be at the Royal Mile or elsewhere. So stick around, we'll play one way or another!

December (Relocated) Royal Mile Jam

Greetings, all!

We had the best session in a very long time after an inauspicious start. We arrived to find that the staff of the Royal Mile were setting up for a 25th Birthday celebration for the pub (and a happy one to it!), and so we were told our session would be canceled. Apparently I was informed, but I honestly don't remember. After several of us downed a pint or lunch, I suggested we reconvene at someone's house. Mine (in Springfield) was immediately deemed too far away. Catherine Chapman graciously volunteered, so we all got in our cars and headed a few miles away, set up in her living room, and started to play. It was a shorter session, but we were really cooking and got a lot of great tunes played.

Thanks especially to Catherine for hosting (and fiddling), and to Barbara, Doug, Julie (who rocked the house on Catherine's electronic piano), Charlie (on smallpipes), Stephanie (on mandolin), and Maggie (who came to listen, and was our official tune recorder!). I switched between fiddle and smallpipes. We played lots of great tunes, and I imagine we'll all be sifting through this list for new tunes to learn.

The Stool of Repentance/The Muckin o' Geordie's Byre
Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside
Flowers of Edinburgh/The Mason's Apron/The Barrowburn Reel
The Atholl Highlanders (as a march)
Willafjord/Sleep Soond ida Moarnin
Christmas Day in the Morning/Bottom of the Punchbowl
Prince Charles' Last View of Scotland
The Tongadale Reel
Good King Wenceslas (for a little Xmas cheer on fiddle, pipes, and piano)
The Water is Wide (another lovely pipe/fiddle duet)
Lochanside
Miss MacLeod of Raasay
The Sweetness of Mary/Father Francis Cameron
Far Away
The High Drive
Tam Lin
Boys of the Loch
Calliope House/Andy DeJarlis' Jig/The New Fiddle/MacArthur Road
Willie Fraser/Thomas MacDonnell's/A Taste of Gaelic (link goes to sheet music in PDF)
The Braes of Banffshire
Da Slockit Light/Da Full Rigged Ship/Da New Rigged Ship
Laird of Drumblair/Angus Campbell
Hughie Shorty's Reel/Brenda Stubbert's Reel