Here are some tunes that folks in the Quiet Corner Fiddlers often play.
Chuck's advice:
1. Learn to play the version slowly along with me.
2. MEMORIZE IT. and play it along with me.
3. practice playing it slowly at first, then faster and faster until you have it up to dance tempo.
4. start to play it in your own style, keeping within the basic structure of the tune... Now you're fiddling!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Black Velvet Waltz played straight a 20th Century Canadian tune, said to have been named for a favorite brand of whiskey, attributed to the well-known Metis fiddler, Andy De Jarlis who is also credited by many with the tune 'Whiskey Before Breakfast'.
--- Country Waltz played straight with coaching of unknown origin, but played in both Canadian and Western US/Cajun tradition for many years.
--- Flopeared Mule mainly played straight according to Gus Meade, this tune was recorded more than 40 times before 1940, including as early as 1923. There are dozens of written sources - according to New England fiddle authority Ed Perlman it may be a descendant of a tune called 'Detroit Schottische' printed in an 1854 collection.
--- Flowers of Edinburgh played mostly straight This tune was printed under this name in Britain in 1749, and by 1783 it was annotated by a NH musician. (Details in "The Fiddler's Companion")
--- Golden Slippers played straight Composed in 1870 by African-American minstrel banjoist James A. Bland who also wrote 'Carry Me Back to Old Virginny' and hundreds of other tunes.
--- Irishman's Heart to the Ladies/ My Darling Asleep/ Tobin's Favorite Jig Medley "Irishman's..." is known by a variety of names all over the Irish diaspora. In the seminal O'Neill's collection it is called "Sweet Biddy Daly"; "Darling..." another old Irish jig, also in O'Neill's collection. "Tobin's..." another tune collected by O'Neill, perhaps refers to a Kilkenny musician, Adam Tobin. A respected Irish authority says that an old name for this tune was 'Pretty Girls for Sale". The O'Neill "Music of Ireland" Collection is THE authoritative collection of Irish music, 1,850 tunes collected by a Chicago police chief from the rich community of Irish immigrant musicians in the Chicago neighborhood and published in 1903.
--- Jamie Allen played straight Jamie Allen was a famous piper in the Newcastle area of England. The tune was known as 'Reel of Tullochgorum' before it was associated with Allen. It was printed under the name 'Jamie Allen' in the 'Northumbrian Piper's Tunebook' in 1936.
--- Liberty played straight unknown origin, probably a 20th C composition but played everywhere in the US and Canada as a result of having been recorded by Gid Tanner, Bob Wills, John Carson, Don Messer, etc. from the 1920s on...
--- Mairi's Wedding played straight a Gaelic song from the Scottish Hebrides, said to have been composed for Mary (Mairi in Gaelic)McNiven by her friend Johnny Bannerman in the late 1800s. First printed in 1909.
--- My Home Waltz played straight a 20th C. Scottish tune known variously as My Home (Gaelic: Mo dhachcaidh), My Own Home, My Own House, My Ain Hoose, etc... first printed in 1954.
--- Red Wing played mostly straight generally accepted as composed by the Tin Pan Alley songwriter Kerry Mills in 1907, common everywhere in North America, Britain and Australia.
--- Over the Waterfall played mostly straight a wide spread tune in the 19th C. but virtually forgotten until Alan Jabbour recorded it from fiddler Henry Reed and then included it as a cut on the seminal Hollow Rock String Band album of 1970. It immediately became a favorite among Old Timey revivalists around the country.
--- Reel St Antoine played straight a popular French Canadian reel recorded and made popular by the great Master Fiddler Joseph Bouchard before WW II.
--- Scotland the Brave Played straight surprisingly, not an old tune. First published in around 1895 according to folklorist/scholar Jack Campin. (contrasts with "A Hundred Pipers" which is pre-1745 vintage)
--- Temperance (or Teetotaler's) Reel written musical notation played straight published in many 19th C tunebooks, probably originally Irish ("Teetotalers Reel"). First recorded in 1919 according to 'The Fiddler's Companion", but since then recorded scores of time by groups all over the world.
---Tombigbee Waltz played straight derived from what was probably a minstrel show song "Gum Tree Canoe" by Steele and Winnemore, 1847. (See 'The Fiddler's Companion' for lyrics) A nice version of the song was recorded by John Hartford.
--- Whiskey Before Breakfast played mostly straight almost certainly composed by the well-known Metis composer and fiddler Andy DeJarlis who included it in his 1957 "Canadian Fiddle Tunes from the Red River Valley".
------------------------------------------------
Here are some other tunes that QCF fiddlers may play from time to time...
------------------------------------------------
Chinese Breakdown - with coaching This tune was recorded in 1925 by the "Dixie String Band" and then by other southern groups.
Charlie Kopanski's Polka written notation jpg played straight - (working on identifying the history of this tune... this name comes from a local fiddler who enjoyed playing it...)
Down South Medley pdf written notation played straight "Down Yonder" was composed in 1921 by the Tin Pan Alley star Wolfe Gilbert, a Jewish immigrant from Odessa, Russia who was a great pal of Eddie Cantor. He mainly specialized in 'location songs' and was the composer of "Hello, Aloha, How are you?" and "My Hawaiian Sunrise"; "Swanee River" was written in Pittsburgh in 1851 by Stephen Foster for the blackface Christy Minstrels vaudeville group; "Alabama Jubilee" was written in 1915 by George Cobb, an alumni of Syracuse University who was for many years a columnist for Melody magazine and a NYC Tin Pan Alley regular.
Opening Medley is a brief practice audio that Chuck whipped off. It has slow 'basic barebones' of the five tunes that make up the opening medley played by the Old Fiddlers Club of RI
Gaspee Reel, Strawberries and Raspberries/ Government Reel "Gaspee Reel" is a popular French Canadian reel, probably from the 20th C, which is associated with several well-known musicians including Louis Beaudoin, Phillippe Bruneau, Pete Sutherland, and others; "Strawberries and Raspberries" (Les Fraises et les Framboises") is another ubiquitous French Canadian tune; "Reel du Gouvernement/Government Reel" was recorded in Oct, 1936 by the well-known accordionist and composer Tommy Duchesne along with fiddler Albert Allard. Tommy was a frequent presence on Canadian radio in the 1930s and 1940s and recorded many tunes, about a dozen of which (l'oiseau bleu, Money Musk, etc, but unfortunately not Govt Reel) can be heard on the excellent website "Virtual Gramophone".
Judique Jig played straight A tune composed by one of the most famous Cape Breton fiddlers, Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald who died in 1987.
Road to the Isles played straight a well known Scottish pipe tune and song, many times recorded, said to be the tune played by the piper as British troops landed in Normandy on D-Day.
Ellis Island Waltz played straight This tune is not listed in ASCAP, US Copyright, BMI, or several other databases of sheet music... so I'm guessing that it has another name. It was a favorite of RI Fiddler, Frank Moon.
Welcome Home (or Here) Again played straight with coaching recorded in a Scottish manuscript of 1734, according to Andrew Kuntz's "Fiddler's Companion", and published in "Cole's 1,000 Fiddle Tunes" and other popular collections. Kuntz reports a later apocryphal tradition that the tune was composed by Robert Steele, a drummer boy at the battle of Bunker Hill in 1776.
---------------------------------------------------------
More links to local fiddle music can be found at RIMUSIC - a website maintained by local fiddler Matt McConeghy
.