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Rhode Island Music Roots Music in Rhode Island, Eastern Connecticut, and Southeastern Massachusetts, USA
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Many Links, Concerts, Performers, etc. Archives of old notices
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Neighbors...
The Kingston jam will meet May 11 from 7pm to 9pm at the Kingston Free Library (upstairs in Potter's Hall) Route 138 in South Kingston on the corner of Upper College Road near URI.
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some tunes the Kingston group has been playing Frenchman's Bellyache (audio file - Deck plays harmonica and Jim plays guitar) Frenchman's Bellyache (AVI video file of Jim and Deck at Kingston 2-9-09)
Home with the girls in the Morning (bbb - taught at jam 1/12/09) Home with The Girls in the Morning (band version from the wonderful 1974 Deseret String Band album "Land of Milk and Honey" recently re-released on CD. Features RI fiddler Skip Gorman and Hal Cannon (RISD!) and banjo/vocal by former RI luthier Len Coulsen. The second tune in the medley is 'Devil in the Strawsack') L'oiseau bleu (bbb - taught at jam 1/12/09) Redwing - version played at Kingston practice 2 - 9 - 2009 Seneca Square Dance G (band version)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More versions of tunes we played in the last couple sessions:
Angeline the Baker D (basic bare bones version) Angeline (AVI video file from Kingston 2-9-2009 video files may play on Windows as audio only, if you do not have Quicktime or equivalent software) Liberty D (bbb) Liza Jane A (bbb) Old Joe Clark - classic Stringbean and Buddy Spicher at the Opry, and slick kid OJC fiddle band version (preceded by Cuckoo's Nest and followed by Devil's Dream) and version from 1930s OJC field recording by Library of Congress folklorists. St Anne's Reel star version - Aly Bain fiddles with virtuoso dobroist; St Anne's Reel classic version from the great fiddler Joseph Allard - poor quality recording but this is the true vine of French Canadian fiddling. (Here is another better recording of Allard Reel Jacques-Cartier 1930 - we won't play this one) Snake River Reel - practice version from Kingston 2 - 9 -2009 Soldier's Joy D (barebones) Soldier's Joy is the most often recorded fiddle tune in history. Star of the County Down the Pogues; Star of the County Down The Horny Pixies; Star of the County Down (sort of like we play it); Redwing G - a snappy YouTube Texas version
Some other tunes - we'll probably be taking suggestions for more tunes to add to the basic list-
Arkansas Traveller (bbb) Arkansas Traveller Tommy Jarrell with Aly Bain! Excellent!, Arkansas Traveller (followed by Turkey in the Straw and Bill Cheatem - wonderful set played with typical delight by the beloved and much missed Canadian Master Graham Townsend) Finnegan's Wake (bbb), Fisher's Hornpipe Leopold Moeslein 1906 one of the first recorded fiddle tunes. (UCSB Collection) Fisher's Hornpipe Charles D'Almaine 1913 - a medley with Off to California and other tunes. Pretty good! Fisher's Hornpipe D link to Library of Congress Henry Reed page of tunes recorded by Alan Jabbour in 1967. This page also has audios of other great Henry Reed tunes including the seminal version of Over the Waterfall, Frosty Morning, Dinah, Ducks in the Pond, Santa Anna's Retreat, and 100 others. Fisher's Hornpipe - on ukelele. Pretty decent. Guy can play. Frosty Morning uptempo, slightly different from Henry Reed or our version, kitschy but nice), Jamie Allen (bbb), June Apple interesting old style version - Rafe Stefanini fiddles, Kitchen Girl (a fun YouTube version on two banjos, but not in our key-we usually play in A), Mairi's Wedding (bbb) Redhaired Boy nice flashy guitar version shown fast and slow, Road to Boston Whiskey Before Breakfast (band version),
For most dances you need one or two waltzes. Some of the most commonly played waltzes such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Westphalia, Midnight on the Water, etc may not work too well with a sit-in band. Waltzes that aren't really waltzes, like Ashokan Farewell or Give Me Your Hand, tend not to work too well with a group either, so suggestions for an actual waltz to learn include some of these widely played favorites...
Amelia's Natalie MacMaster has recorded this waltz written by Bob McQuillen of NH Josefin's Dopvals (unusual band); Josefin's Dopvals the composer Roger Tallroth and friends at StringNation; Juanita's - I'll have to get a version of this lovely waltz composed by our friend Camilla Streeter. Judy and Jim's Wedding ick, a midi file, but it does give the sense of this pretty Larry Unger waltz. Margaret's ick, another midi, this time of a lovely waltz composed by Pat Shaw. Planxty Fanny Power classical guitar setting; Planxty Fanny Power harp setting,
Note: The Kingston jam is supported by the RI State Council for the Arts. Thanks, RISCA!
Jam sessions - this is a link to Folkjams.org - a national listing of jam sessions. If your session is not listed, go there right now and enter it in the log. Link to Random finds... fun stuff, whatnot, etc.
My $0.02 worth!... Hornpipes or Waltzes or Modal Tunes What are they? Virtual Gramophone - I'be been mining this excellent Canadian music resource. Online access to scores of Canadian 78rpm recordings from the 1910's to the 1940s. The searchable database allows you to zero in on reels, hornpipes, galops, or artists like Don Messer or Joseph Allard. Or try Philip Presner, George Wade, Jose Zaffiro (excellent hornpipe medley from 1918!) or J.B. Roy. Irish Fiddle - cultural musical archive and Irish Regional Styles - And how fast for Irish fiddling? -- an article on the great Clare fiddler Bobby Casey "In listening to his published recordings...speed is not a high priority. Reels are played in the 106-112 bpm range, jigs in the 118-124 bpm range and hornpipes around 86 bpm." top ten recorded fiddle tunes, Fiddler Magazine survey 1995 - the Most Popular Fiddle Tunes Top Keys for Irish Music - Maybe this falls under "too much time on their hands"? A count of 14,000 Irish tunes revealed that 3100 were in no sharps (Cmajor or Aminor), while 5000 were 1 sharp (Gmajor, Eminor, Adorian), 3800 were in 2 sharps (Dmaj, Bmin, Edor), 700 in 3 sharps, 770 in 1 flat, 400 in 2 flats, and about 200 miscellaneous. Modal? What? Chuck Morgan got me thinking about this. I had to work it through. Brown's distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology Jeff Titon, lists the 20 "essential" albums of Fiddling by Authentic Old Timers in the South and his website on the graceful fiddling of Clyde Davenport Fiddling Around the World connections to different styles of fiddling! Interesting! Or, how about Swedish Fiddling? "Old Time" or "Old Timey" refers to the music played in rural America from about 1800 until about the 1940s, and continuing up to this moment in revival groups and dances around the country. Much of Old Timey is instrumental music played on guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. For over 200 years small bands have played for dances in rural areas from New England to Louisiana and on the furthest reaches of the Western Frontier. Many of the tunes have been passed down for generations, derived from older traditions such as the dance music of Scotland, Ireland, French-Canada or rural England. The music of Scandinavia, Central Europe and African American traditions have also influenced the repertory. This music started to enter the commercial market in the 1930s as radios became common (exactly as shown in the recent movie "Oh Brother Where art Thou?") and eventually got transformed into Country/Western, and into the highly polished virtuoso performance music known as 'Bluegrass." But, thousands of musicians continue to play the original tunes of 50, 100 or 150 years ago, and many thousands of dancers continue to enjoy the contradance and square dance traditions. For many Old Timey musicians, playing music is a historic tradition, and for many others, it is just plain fun!
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RIMUSIC : Rhode Island Old Timey Fiddle, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, cajun, bluegrass, country dance, contradance, and all traditional music and dance.
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old notices and postings are on the Archive page ---
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