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Originally posted by wrench13

The Nancy Dawson I know is the traditional tune used in the Royal Navy from 1700's until July 31, 1970, to call the hands for their ration of grog. Totally different tune.
 

https://youtu.be/RdwX6qoemF0

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This is what the player writes on his channel : 

Here's the tenth rendition of the Isham Monday Showcase series. This tune seems to be in the "Duck River" and "Dubuque" family. Though the tune is more frequently recorded under the title "Nancy Dalton," Monday's setting seems to be the most interesting. An unrelated English tune named "Nancy Dawson" appears in eighteenth century tune books and manuscripts.

Trying to learn Red Wing by ear. I have first section of the A and parts of all the rest. Can't quite tie it all together just yet.

Red Wing was my Mom's favorite fiddle tune. Do it proud Erock!

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Originally posted by wrench13

Red Wing was my Mom's favorite fiddle tune. Do it proud Erock!

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Aww! It's fun and super recognizable as far as melody goes. 

Have you ever seen the 1907 sheet music for this song? A lovely cover, but it puts it in context with the group of "Indian Maid" songs of that period that also included "Silver Bell."
levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/col...n/149/055

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Originally posted by DougD

Saint Patrick's Day, so I sang and played on the banjo "Leaving Dear Old Ireland" from Charlie Poole. No fiddle though. That song always reminds of the sadder side of Irish immigration to the US, which is part of my family history.

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I was just talking about "the Great Hunger" (aka potato Famine) with our sesh leader/harp player. Her mom immigrated here at that time...her dad a few years later. They did not leave Ireland by choice... more out of desperation. Her father's family had their farm taken away by the British...too much to go into here, but that strain of melancholy in some Irish music becomes poignant...

Learning O Carolan tunes over here! ( "harp sesh" this past weekend. More importantly, they liked my lasagna ... hahaha...I know people usually like my fiddling, but I am not quite so sure about my cooking! )

Your harp player's parents emigrated around 1850? That seems unlikely.
My grandmother's family emigrated from the South Wales coalfields in a sailing packet ship in 1858 (with three year old and infant daughters), but my grandmother was born in northern Kentucky in 1870. My grandfather emigrated from Ireland in the 1880's, but in a steel hulled steamship. Quite a change in travel in a generation!
I was just thinking of the sadness of leaving your homeland and saying goodbye to people you never expected to see again, in addition to the conditions that encouraged such a move. Here's the Charlie Poole song:
youtu.be/WBruwM5ODpM?feature=shared

Yes, oops sorry…
She must have meant ‘mother’s family’ and ‘father’s family”, and not literally mom and dad!

Finally figured out the A part and how to loop it of Nancy Dawson as in the video I showed.
Very nice catchy tune.

I've been trying to polish up on Bully of the Town. It's one of the only raggy tunes I ever cared about for whatever reason... Rags sound pretty good to me lately. Peacock is another, but that's coming slowly. My old friend and mentor Grover Broadwater played a lot of them. I miss that old guy.  

Today not yet sure what to play....the Nancy Dawson tune again is just too much, I need something else now , before I go the B part of that tune.
I entered a whole new world today thanks to the prepaid credit card that my post office sold to me. Subscribed for FHO and listening now to the Trouble on Spring Creek album that I just purchased. That is like the first time since I picked up the fiddle that I actually can shop on the other side of the ocean .

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Originally posted by Shawn Craver Fiddler

I've been trying to polish up on Bully of the Town. It's one of the only raggy tunes I ever cared about for whatever reason... Rags sound pretty good to me lately. Peacock is another, but that's coming slowly. My old friend and mentor Grover Broadwater played a lot of them. I miss that old guy.  

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I like this one, but think of it as a song not a tune, though of course, it has a nice melody for fiddling.

Alas, once again I'm playing the Cherry River Rag and struggling with that high C...Maybe I should just stick to the commercial drink?

Just in case anyone has wondered what the "Bully" looked like, here he is in all his glory. Jenny Cleland sent me this not too many years ago, just for old times sake.
levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/col...n/142/048

PS - I just realized there's a link to an original recording on that page. The words (and the whole concept) are offensive, by today's (or really any day's) standards. However, I think its good for people today to understand the (quite complicated) roots of "old time" music.

So many tunes Bob Wills popularized but didn't write.
Say what you want, I think of Bully as a Bob Wills tune.

Based on the lyrics in the sheet music, the cover art could be of the singer who uses his razor to cut the bully up.

I think of Riley Puckett when I think of that song. He doesn't sing much in the way of lyrics, certainly not these lyrics.

No tunes today, focusing on 'stealing' some phrases from different tunes that sound cool and that I can repeat myself and then trying to vary on them.

Two really cool tunes have caught my ear this past week and are now in my rotation:

1. Loch Ness Monster Reel (aka George Harrison Reel)
2. A Trip to Mabou Ridge (Cape Breton march by Dan Hughie MacEachern)

learned & been playing a lot lately...
reels: TempleHouse reel / Over the Moor to Maggie
Within a Mile of Dublin / Holly Bush
jigs: The Luck Penny / Jerry's Beaver Hat
Piper's Chair / Mist-covered Mountain

And I try to tack on a tune #3 that is super-common tune & everybody knows...

Devil Eat The Groundhog! I'm totally confident everything is going to fall in its place now that I attended FHO (where I heard about this tune for the first time). Free from pollution (please take it as a joke) , I mean I had some offers from violinists in my country who picked up bluegrass / folk later, willing to teach me, but from the beginning on I just wanted to sound strictly fiddle in the first place... I just watched a video from a fiddle event in Ghent and they were playing oldtime , but to my ears it sounded like a classical interpretation of the genre, very beautiful yes , but not what I wish for myself lol. Can I just say that? I guess I did before and now I do it again. At least my violin teacher understood this when she said it was time for me to move on.
The risk to appear completely ridiculous and stubborn to others in my own country and the awkward feeling I have right now regarding the whole FHO community realizing I post here a lot -which might not have passed unnoticed - just makes me giggle all day. I just had no clue when I dropped in here one day long ago hahahaha. I really had no clue at all... I just wanted the real stuff.
I feel now like the tiniest fish in the ocean with the biggest yap perhaps.

I started off with a workshop with Tatiana Hargreaves and that was not just fiddle fire, I mean that was a fiddle bomb to me, there was so much in it for me. She is amazing !!! Then I attended a workshop with Eryn Marshall and so happy I picked the beginners old time workshop, I really needed that <3

And yeah , low on resources at the moment , but **** that, I want my FHO 2025 t-shirt :-D

Please forgive this crazy fiddle fan. I just love all of you. You are all amazing <3

Quincy, I am so glad you are getting the max out of FHO. For folks like you, overseas, its the best way to connect with players steeped in the actual styles.

So true!

My flute friend here in USA takes lessons from Ireland (she said zoom connection is a little spotty sometimes, but so worth it :-)

Glad you enjoyed FHO! I did too! (I didn't go this year... but I loved the time I went!)

Having so much fun with all of the replays of FHO :-D Today I am experimenting with all the bowing tips I am picking up on tunes I once tried to learn - instead of studying new tunes and tune versions . So much I want to learn and understand, so much to explore , so much to try out... I couldn't be more entertained.

"Devil Eat the Groundhog" is one of my favorite tunes to warm up those low settings with. I might post it.