Re: Leaning Toward Old Time Fiddle Tunes
Originally Posted by
Jim Garber
The tunes you list above are either not strictly considered OT tunes (though they be fine to play in many jams) or are the old warhorse variety, which i find still fun to play whereas, at many of the OT jams, would be rarely resurrected.
Perhaps, you're in the wrong country, red7Flag. You've provided a good beginning to a list of tunes played at Canadian Old-Time jams. We don't tend to play "The Eighth of January" much (we mostly associate it with the Hit Parade song, "The Battle of New Orleans," clearly not a battle that we celebrate -- catchy tune though). "My Grandfather's Clock" wouldn't be common, but most people know it and would join in if someone began it. "The Red-Haired Boy" is usually called "The Jolly Beggar Man" up here, except in highly America-influenced circles. And "St. Anne's Reel" is a French-Canadian fiddle tune, and one of the most popular fiddle tunes from coast to coast to coast. New Englanders often overlap with our ideas of Old Time.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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