"Dave Swarbrick Fiddle Tunes" Book
In the early 70's, I heard my brother's "Fairport Convention" albums and I decided right then and there I wanted to play fiddle like David Swarbrick. I came to mandolin while trying to teach myself fiddle when I found one in a pawn shop and realized I could play it. I'll play bluegrass, old-time, Irish, Scots, English, Welsh, ragtime, contra, you name it, but I'm happiest when playing tunes Swarb played as close as I can get to playing them like he played them. I have my abused copy of "Swarbrick's Merry Melodies", but there's so much the man put out, I wished I had all his tunes on paper. Face it, trying to learn his medley's at the speed he plays them means A LOT of repeating small phrases over and over and over, and even then you're pretty sure you're missing a bunch of subtle notes. BUT NOT ANYMORE!!!
While scouring the interwebs for some clues on a couple of Swarb's tunes, I discovered that Maartin Allcock has transcribed most of Swarb's fiddle and mandolin tunes into "Dave Swarbrick Fiddle Tunes", in album chronological order. There are 240 pages, over 300 tunes, and a wonderful notes section in the back with tidbits on each tune. It's a big book, approximately 12" x 8", sturdy high quality paper, and lots of photos of Swarb scattered throughout. Some tunes are repeated as they were played differently in successive albums. For instance, The Banks appears first in Bb as played on fiddle on an early Ian Campbell Folk Group album, and again later in G as played on mandolin on the "No Songs" album with Martin McCarthy.
Maartin Allcock's website is : http://www.maartinallcock.com/
Look under his SHOP tab to see the book for sale. It's going to set you back $60 for the book and $20 shipping to the US of A, and you're going to have to wait about 3 weeks, but when you get your grubby little rosin-dusted mitts on this book, your not going anywhere for the next couple of hours.
I've been dissecting The Frog up the Pump for years, could never find any information on this great tune on the internet, almost had it all down, only to now find out it's actually a medley (well, duh, what else could it be?) of The Pinch of Snuff, The Colliers Reel, Storra, and a reprise of The Pinch of Snuff, now in A instead of G (at least I figured that part out!) Oh yeah, Bridge over the River Ash is actually a medley of The Bishop and Orleans Baffled, a fact that has been unknown to me for, what, 46 years?
If you like good Irish, Scots, Welsh, or English fiddle and mandolin tunes, you will like this book. If you like Dave Swarbrick, you WANT this book. If it wasn't past midnight, I'd go back downstairs and rosin the bow and take a crack at another score tunes or more. I am a very happy man.
(I am not associated with Maartin Allcock other than being very happy he put this book together, and I receive no recompense for this post, but I did receive a nice email from Jan at Squiggle Records in Harlech, Cymru thanking me for my order, if that counts for anything.)
Rob Ross
Apple Valley, Minne-SOH-tah
1996 Flatiron A5-Performer, 1915 Gibson F-2 (loaned to me by a friend), 2008 Kentucky Master KM-505 A-Model
1925 Bacon Peerless tenor banjo (Irish tuning), 1985 Lloyd Laplant F-5, 2021 Ibanez PFT2 Tenor Guitar (GDAE)
and of course, the 1970 Suzuki-Violin-Sha Bowl Back Taterbug
Bookmarks