Week #515 ~ The Sailor’s Wife

  1. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    This week’s winner is The Sailor’s Wife, which was submitted as a Scottish jig. I’m posting from my phone, so I’d appreciate it if some helpful member can link to videos and notation!
  2. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Couple of versions on thesession.org here’s one,THE SAILOR’S WIFE as a PDF.

    And two fiddle vids:

    https://youtu.be/KAsew03binU



    https://youtu.be/F5qr-HnUprI


    (Edited, thanks Ginny)
  3. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    thesession. org...not .com. dot com takes you to scary places.
  4. David Hansen
    David Hansen
    I am never sure where my videos are going to go when I start them, this one morphed into a very un-jig like monster of sorts, please pardon my indiscretion.

  5. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Excellent David, although pretty darn menacing.
  6. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Your recording sounds dark and stormy. Together with the chosen images you tell the story behind the music. I don’t see any indiscretion but great storytelling, David.
  7. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Oops, my mistake! In my mind the story of “Ailein Duinn” recently told by Regina and Bertram so impressively blend into the story David told us with his video. I don’t know anything about the story behind “The Sailor’s Wife”.
    Nevertheless, both videos are amazing! And great storytelling!
  8. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    ...
    Note to self, don’t post on forum after 11:30pm...
  9. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    I liked the mood of David's Sailor Wife. I like the combination of the real David and the pictures. Maybe that is one way of slowly getting the courage you all have to get in front of the camera as other than a photograph. But this is about David. I really liked this song. It's not a pretty ditty, which I lean towards, but a challenging task to make it musical, which David does, in spades.
  10. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Like a confused nightmare, here’s a late night post that I wrote last night. Great thought provoking performance David.

    Two sullen major seventh notes are harnessed between a couple of howling relative minors of the tonic. There’s the menacing tonic itself too in the centre, all in the first measure. The beast is the dark sea rearing up again, ready to leap but frozen in suspense by the minor second at the end of the second measure. And then the pounce from the third interval in the third measure to disaster.
    Aye it’s all there if ye can but see it!
    We’re all doomed!

    Fearful stuff indeed.
    And the monster courageously dispatched by our learned Gentleman.
    May the Song A Week Social Group live long and prosper!

    I think I’m going to play this one like, really slow, and just try to get all the notes, no buzz and in the right places.

    (Ginny, you could play it to a slow bongo drum machine and wear a big pair of 1970’s very dark sunglasses, and then get someone else to post the vid?)
    -no-one would ever know.
  11. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Spooky indeed, and well played as usual. The tune sounds a little bit like the evil sister of Sarah's Mandolin, which we did a little while ago.
  12. Simon DS
    Simon DS
  13. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Nice one, Simon.
  14. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Good job, Simon!
  15. Simon DS
    Simon DS
  16. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    David, sorry for forgetting to add my thanks for yet another fascinating piece of musical creation. Fine job there.
  17. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    That new microphone is working well! What model is it?

    Both performances here are so good. I'm impressed with how you can play these tunes so well, so soon.
  18. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Very good Simon, I like the octave switches. Here's mine:

  19. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    New mandolin, David? I don't think I've seen you play this one before.

    I won't even comment on your playing. I'm not worthy!
  20. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    That's my Jacobson, which I've had for a good few years now and features on a few of my other videos. Built by local (to Atlanta) boy made good, Marty Jacobson.
  21. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    Nice playing Simon and David and David.. This sounds like a difficult piece. But it's different, and I like that about it.
  22. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Thanks Guys. Really nice playing there David, I like those slides and hammer-ons (or trills?)
    Gelsenbury the microphone is a Boya BY MM1 Universal. I love it.
    It attaches directly to the iPhone, and well observed, it does most of the work, I actually hardly had to practice the tune at all.
    But I think four and a half days is plenty of time. That’s like an hour a day for five and a half months (weekends off). 108 hours.
    As soon as it was recorded I let the cat in and fell asleep -luckily the drugs were wearing off by that time..
  23. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Ah! The Silverangel is back and lives up to it's name.
  24. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    Simon, you break me up. !
  25. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    I can’t offer a multitrack recording. Barely time to practice and record.
    To participate in this weeks discussion I simply played one time through the tune.


  26. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Really nice to hear you Frithjof, and well done, I like those triplets! I like single track too.
  27. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    Very nice Frithjof. Like Simon, I too like single track.
  28. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Here, too, I'm reinstating my submission from the short-lived days of the next-generation forum software. This tune is more in my comfort zone than Fort Smith Breakdown and didn't take as long to learn. I'd like a fuller sound on the E string, but I think that's a common problem.



    The instruments are my Fylde Touchstone Walnut mandolin, Blue Moon octave mandola ... and even a brief appearance by a cheap 12-string harp, which has a slightly sad history as an unwanted Valentine's Day present to my wife! So there's more history to this version of "The Sailor's Wife" than just the puffy sleeves!

    I like David's spooky version, but just went along with the straight E minor version in the hope that players at my local session might know the tune. They didn't. Oh well.
  29. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    This is more your style Dennis, it is very nice.. and I also like that you are channeling your inner Russell Crowe ( Master and Commander) with the poofy shirt. Lots of good recordings of this one.
  30. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Good job, Dennis. Nice idea to add a little harp playing.
  31. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Fine and varied versions, all.

    It is great to see the SAW group back in its stable form again. Big thanks to Scott and co for the massive time they must have put in to this update of such a huge and popular website.
  32. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Hello everyone! it’s like we’re all in boats on a bright heavy sea, the storm passed last night, clear blue sky, and look out there, the whole flotilla is still afloat. What joy!
    And Gelsenbury dressed for the occasion. Well done that man!
  33. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Contunuing poor weather has allowed more recording than usual for many of us, and here is my version of this great Scottish jig. Played on mandolin with acoustic guitar backing, as usual! This was a new tune to me and one I have really enjoyed playing, as well as listening to the various versions folk have posted here.
    Good to see the group so active at the moment.

  34. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Yes, it's nice to have so many different contributions. To Barbara, it must be almost like the old days! Bertram likes a Scottish tune normally, so perhaps the thread isn't at an end yet.

    Good playing, John. I think yours is the most jiggy version so far. It's impossible not to tap one's foot to this.
  35. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Your contribution adds a lot, John. Thanks.
  36. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Fine playing John with authentic tone!
    I like the plaintif Italian sounding staccato -ok so she’s no longer stout and angry. Now she’s slimmer and younger, with attractive long dark hair and a couple of wee bairns standing on the rocks looking out to sea in despair.
  37. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Thanks, guys. Simon, glad I could create a picture of an attractive younger wife for the sailor. I always think it odd that a song of great grief should be in jig form, but then, maybe she was not too enamoured of her errant husband and his long trips at sea?
  38. Steve Larson
    Steve Larson


    Howdy folks! Only a few years late... finally making a contribution to this fine group. Fingers were a bit mashed at this point so it wasn't as clear as could be, but hey, not too bad. I'll get my actual mic next time to cut out some of the noise. I need to work on the multi-track setup so I can get some rhythm, too. (open to suggestions here!)

    Also made a tabledit file if anyone would like it. Not sure how to attach it here.
  39. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Scene change.
    Ok so now she’s a Supermodel, still on the beach and there are no kids involved.
    I guess the microphone background noise is actually from all the men -and a fair number of women who are standing around trying to console her.

    Great version Steve and really happy to hear you on the SAW group.
  40. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    You have a fine lift and drive in this version, Steve. It is a grand wee tune and no worse for being about 200 years old!
  41. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    New blood for our social group! I hope we can listen more of your playing during the next weeks, Steve.
  42. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    I totally missed out on this, and the impressively murky start from David H. seems to be one end of the spectrum of stories. Others have shown that other sceneries are possible. One must remember that there is hardly ever a story behind a tune name, and even if there is, it is not said what happens. It could be something like Alein Duinn (thanks for referring to that, Frithjof), but it could as well be something along the lines of The Good Ship Kangaroo.
    OTOH it's a Neil Gow tune, and if you're looking for sad stories, Neil's yer man.
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