I just heard "Franc A'Phoill" this weekend it felt like an exercise I use playing my flute. It is on my list. Jig in D

A New England Tune, if I heard it well it's called Little Scotty. I found the notes of a similar tune called Young Scotty after learning the A part and this has to be the same tune (at least for the A part as far as I can say), but all these dots make me dizzy. It's just far more easy and makes a lot more sense when you learn it by ear. Now up to the B part!

If I now look at these 'too many dots' I can only think: yay, I've made it so far that tunes like this one are within my reach nowadays.

The Old Grey Sow, She Stole the Middlin's........I'm trying to play it 100% saw stroke as an exercise.

Red Wing...Check...on to Ducks on the Millpond in Bb!






























kidding! :) But seriously, on to Ducks

Hardy har har…

That is a cool tune, I like the Ducks!

Well, while the Ducks are out on the Millpond, the Cook is in the Kitchen!

Learning “Cook in the Kitchen” (jig) which I heard at last weekend’s house session…

Fiddler guy started it at first on the wrong string and Finn said, “That won’t work!” He showed how the third part would then require shifting up into third position on the E string…which I’m pretty sure we did not feel like doing, haha. Anyway, after that it got stuck in my ears …so learning it.

I was planning to learn Greasy Coat as one of the next old time tunes on my list but I would need something like a Westvleteren 12 to fix my mind. After recently hearing an explanation of what 'greasy coat' could stand for - although I think it was just a joke- I am still having difficulties to process the lyrics of this tune and I don't want these weird thoughts on lyrics... I mean : devils and demons and hell, wandering or lost souls, digging graves and eternal woe or just gunfire, murder and whisky or even strange things happening to all kinds of animals and even silly sounding lyrics with vegetables playing a major role : YAY! But when it goes THAT way it's a big NAY for me haha.

Also on my list : What’ll I Do With the Baby-O... here on contrary I don't hear any problems , sounds to me like a completely hilarious story on a baby that is being handled carelessly inconsiderate. Some lines of different versions of this tune are just too funny. Poor baby haha.

Don't put much concern about lyrics. Many lyrics, though not all, are later additions to a melody. I don't think "Greasy Coat" as a title refers to much of what those lyrics say. I could be wrong.

Hmmm. So, child abuse is OK with you, but not contraception? Ha ha
But fear not - that "explanation" of what "Greasy Coat" might mean was made up around a Clifftop campfire by people who think they know more than they do. Here's an interesting discussion about it that should set your mind at ease without "Westvleteren 12," whatever that is:
elliotkenneloldtimemusic.blogs....html?m=1
Now then - "What cha gonna do when the baby cries, stick your finger in he baby's eyes." That's the spirit!

LOL Doug, I more had a problem with the idea of stigmatising girls who have romances and are so wise to take precautions, thus promoting the state of staying a virgin till marriage or something like that hehe.
I've heard men claim women and men are 'equivalent but not equal' ... had to remind we actually DO have equal constitutional rights and not just 'equivalent' rights.

If there is anything I find remarkable about these old time fiddlers from back then it is the way women were given an equal chance to have the greatest fun (to play the fiddle). A while ago I read Wilson Douglas' biography and found out that he, born in 1922, actually learned to play the fiddle from his grandmother (!). During that time period women did not even have the right to vote.

Anyway, to me fiddling is strongly related to freedom - in many different ways.

Isn't a Greasy coat just a coat, made of canvas , cotton leather etc, with grease, tar, rubber or oil etc, put on it to waterproof it?
Apparently They smelt pretty bad also.

..Lots of good info coming out..with the exception that there are No campfires allowed at Clifftop.

Pete - I've never heard that term over here, but I know what you mean. The kind of foul weather gear fishermen used to wear were called "oilskins," complee with a "sou'wester" hat. Still worn on some packages of frozen beer battered fish sticks. The kind of field coat worn at shooting party weekends on country estates iare usually just called "waxed cotton."
Lee, sorry, I haven't been in a long time and I forgot. I guess it was around a Coleman lantern or a string of flamingo lights that the Druids gathered to ponder these things.

Ha ha... just looked at those lyrics, and it seems like they fit with my description of a greasy coat. And an advert for the soap to clean it.

My wife is a saddler and has all sorts of concoctions for waterproofing and cleaning leather and fabrics (horse rugs...phew... a workshop full of horse rugs to repair yuck). One of them is a lanolin based recipe and i mistakenly put some on my boots to waterproof them . i had to throw them out after a month or so because of the stench. We eventually out-sourced rug repairs and re-proofing.

Also coal miners pit boots where routinely treated with "Goose Grease" to supple them up until the pit shut in the 80's.

Seems like Macintosh found a recipe for non stinky grease for his coats in the mid 1800's...That's why Brits (And maybe Neo Druids?) call raincoats Macs.

Bored. I got to thinking about Charlie and Patt. Patt accompanies Charlie with a piano. I thought, shoot I can play that much piano. I know it's not gonna sound like Patt. Well, I made some loops. Then I made loops with just left hand. Then both hands. Then left hand, then add the right afterwards. You can do that with a looper. Well, it sounds different than a full band like I been doing. I wish I had a pickup on my banjo. Then I could made banjer loops. Fiddle and banjer sounds good to me but I don't frail. I three finger pick. Tried and tried. Closest I can get is two finger picking. I don't really prefer that to three finger.

Today I am having fun with peakfiddler's Clean that Shovel Down. What a very nice and lighthearted tune this is <3 It was on my list with favorite fiddle instructional videos, but I totally forgot about it, because I couldn't follow back then when I put it in my playlist. Now I can :-D

Yesterday I saw a video on practising fiddling when you have ADHD, I found out that also for me this explanation of what challenges people with ADHD while practising made a lot of sense, the only question is : will I really be able to change the way I practise when I feel uplifted. If I were less chaotic and had more discipline in the first place instead of just being overly enthousiastic on the sound of certain tunes and tune versions, I'd probably be more efficient , but just fiddling around with the few bits that I first pick up from a tune became like an unwanted habit that is very time consuming. I constantly need to tell myself : noooooo, get back to the tune and how it's explained, you want that! I can only conclude I need lots of breaks if I want to do it right.

Yay, I did well yesterday! I almost got the whole feel of the Clean That Shovel Down tune in my fingers, one phrase needs some attention but I got it. Now today I am polishing the way I will bring it and paying special attention to weaving the different parts into eachother and adding some extra's.

"Saltchuck" Michael Burnyeat. I learned this tune a week or so ago.  Tues night I showed to my band and we played it out for the first time Wednesday.  Big hit with everyone, band and audience, its such a catchy little melody.  You know its a good 'un when someone comes up later in the day to tell you 'I cant get that tune out of my head' and proceeds to deedly-dee it back to you.  

Today I've been playing Whiteface a lot...which reminds me.. at a recent jam of 6 fiddlers (all accomplished) and two banjos and a uke and a mandolin...I was asked by the jam host to lead a tune. I chose Whiteface but when I was playing I noticed that only One fiddler was joining me.. I apologized afterwards saying that I chose the tune because I was sure that everyone knew it.. We have played it in this area for well over ten years.. Ya never know..! I sent a youtube video of the tune to other fiddlers.

Whiteface is still a (relatively) recent tune. I guess it depends on how aware you are of Joe Thrift.

True, it is a relatively new tune but locally, in 'our' circle we have played it a lot . All of the fiddlers were locals but we don't all normally play in the same circles..That would explain it.

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Hmmm. So, child abuse is OK with you, but not contraception? Ha ha
But fear not - that "explanation" of what "Greasy Coat" might mean was made up around a Clifftop campfire by people who think they know more than they do. Here's an interesting discussion about it that should set your mind at ease without "Westvleteren 12," whatever that is:
elliotkenneloldtimemusic.blogs....html?m=1

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Doug, I heard the "contraceptive" meaning of the slamg term "greasy coat" many years ago (and quite likely pre-Clifftop) from a leading scholar of West Virginia traditional music and folklore, who personally knew and played with many of the great, now long-gone regional musicians, and (I believe) got this tidbit of folklore first-hand from one or more of these elder sources. (This scholar/musician may be someone that you'd know as well, but who I'd prefer not to to name without their permission.) The use of the term apparently derived from the fact that condoms were once made from sheep gut (rather than rubber), which was presumably a rather greasy material. I suppose it's possible that the slang usage of the term was partly inspired by the old (pre-?) vaudeville song. I do, however, suspect that most or all but the first verse (which I heard close to half a century ago) are modern additions to the lyrics of the West Virginia tune.

Sarah Armstrong's Paddy on the Turnpike! Loving this tune. Love being able to add a tune to my list. Here is the version I'm privy to.

I know there are many versions out there but these kids do it justice.

youtu.be/yNYTxKOfyD0?si=t3RtlUpUpegftxsJ

Nice! I really like their playing.
(Masked while outside…this must have been during Covid!)