Jam Community Tunes - April 2016

Hello again,

We're going to try something new with the jam. A lot of us are beginning to feel like we've been stuck in a repertoire rut for a while, and are looking to learn new tunes. Others are feeling like everyone else is stuck in a repertoire rut, and have great tunes they'd love to play in the jam, if only more people knew them! And both feelings are perfectly valid!

So to address this, mid-way through each jam, I'm going to poll people, especially the melody players, as to what tunes they might like others to learn. They can be an old favorite of yours that no one else at the jam knows, or a tune you yourself may be working on right now.

We got six tunes in the first round of polling, and so these are our homework for the next month. Here's a list, and then a link to the tunes:

Laxo Burn
The Lambing Storm
St. Kilda Wedding
Johnny Cope (variation set in G minor)
Wee Michael's March
Andy Renwick's Ferret (6-part version)

And without further ado, a link to said tunes:

Jam Community Tunes - April 2016

Enjoy!

4-Part High Drive

One of our popular jam tunes is Gordon Duncan's "The High Drive". The Potomac Valley Fiddle Club version gives only two parts (which Gordon recorded on "The Circular Breath", curiously in a very staccato version on a practice chanter). But he actually wrote two additional parts.

High Drive - 4 Part Version (pdf)

I haven't added chords for the last two parts; they're basically the same as the previous parts.

The last part is a little idiosyncratic - specifically the last line. Gordon inserts an additional bar of G-chord arpeggios between what should be bars 2 & 3, for a big super-final fancy ending. Most fiddlers who play the additional parts simply will repeat the first two lines of the final part, rather than use the second ending, but personally I think it's pretty cool.

April 2016 Strongbow's Jam

We had a fantastic turnout at the April jam - we were literally spilling out of the stage area. Thanks so much to everyone who came!

Here's a brief list of the tunes we played:

The Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside/The Earl of Mansfield
The Tongadale Reel/The Knockdhu Reel
The Sound of Sleat
Calliope House/Andy Dejarlis' Jig/The New Fiddle
The Lime Hill/Miss Drummond of Perth/The High Road to Linton/Put Me in a Box
The Sailor's Wife/The Cushion Dance/My Wife's a Wanton Wee Thing
Agnes Ritchie/The Barrowburn Reel/The Knockdhu Reel
Frank's Reel/MacArthur Road/The Road to Errogie
Da Slockit Light/Spootiskerry/Willafjord/Sleep Soond ida Moarnin
The Shetland Fiddler
The Old Woman Would Reel, The Old Woman Would Set/Skye Dance #27
Donald Dhu (which is totally not just Mòr a' Cheannaich in a different key)
The Clumsy Lover/Tail Toddle/The High Drive
Hamish Henderson's Refusal/Tam Lin
Iggy & Squiggy/Patterson's General Store
The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre/The Stool of Repentance/Lieutenant Maguire/Jig Runrig
Road to Banff/The Famous Baravan
Rob Roy MacGregor/Keep it up/Hughie Shorty's
Mrs. MacLeod of Raasay/Jenny Dang the Weaver/Miss Shepherd's Reel/Brenda Stubbert's Reel
Johnny Cope
Mortgage Burn/Reconciliation Reel/The Mason's Apron/
The Cavers of Kirkcudbright/David's Jig
Highland Whisky/The Devil in the Kitchen/The De'il Amang the Tailors/Father Frances Cameron/Timour the Tartar/Jack Daniel's Reel