Request from Canada for performers

Subject: Request from Canada for performers
From: GUEST,EB
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 05:32 AM

I'm passing this message on to see if there is anyone a bit closer to British Columbia who may be of further assistance.
Please send any info to [e-mail]

Thanks,
Elaine Bradtke

"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."
-- Steve Martin
----- Original Message -----

Hello:

I am writing from Walhachin, British Columbia, Canada.

Walhachin is a small community located in the Central Interior of British Columbia. On August 1, 2, 3, & 4, 2008 the community of Walhachin will be celebration its 100th centennial.

To commemorate the event we are researching folk songs and ballads from that era as well as the style of English dancing and was wondering if you could give us any assistance in this research.

Also, would you know of any English Folk Music groups that may entertain the idea of coming to Walhachin to perform music and dance from the 1908 - 1914 period?
Ellen Torng, Nax Nok Ksim Tsim

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: skipy
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 06:06 AM

"Walhachin will be celebration its 100th centennial"

100th centennial!
You want songs from 10,000 years ago?
Skipy

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 08:26 AM

"Request from Canada for performers"

You've already got "our Graham"

You want songs from 10,000 years ago?

Aye, when the fishes do fly love and the seas they run dry love and rocks they melt in the heat of the sun.

Being serious, good luck in your quest.

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 12:34 PM

Hi Ellen: I've emailed you.

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 02:20 PM

I know Jiggery Pokery is disbanded (I think anyway) but they are so phenomenal maybe you could get them..live in Victoria I believe..absolutely amazing jolly music. mg

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Jim Lad
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 02:23 PM

I can help.
Contact me in a week or so, I can help you find a group.

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 04:20 PM

Folks,

Elaine, who posted, is at EFDSS in England; she requests replies be sent directly to Ellen, the person in BC, Canada, who sent her the inquiry.

I've forwarded it to Marian Rose in Vancouver who does traditional dance work.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Peace
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 06:42 PM

"Contact me in a week or so, I can help you find a group."

Jim, that town is half way (sorta) between Cache Creek and Kamloops. Beautiful country. Why aren't YOU popping your name in there? You are a fine singer and you could gin (?--if that means put together some songs) that meet their criteria and do one helluva set. Think about it, anyway.

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 07:18 PM

Walhachin, on the north bank of the Thompson River, was the site of a colony of English gentry, most of them bachelors, which flourished from about 1900 up to the outbreak of the Great War. An extensive irrigation infrastructure was established and the settlers farmed as best they could without letting the farming interfere with such leisure activities as lawn tennis, cricket, hunting, shooting, card parties, amateur theatricals, and the like. I am interested in the topic because my grandparents participated in a similar lifestyle a hundred-odd miles farther south in the Okanagan Valley. Family legend has it that Grandfather promised Granny that if she married him he would put in a proper tennis court at his ranch.

The Walhachin idyll came to an end with the outbreak of the war. According to an historical sign at the site of the now-vanished settlement, all the bachelors made simultaneous plans to return to the mother country in her hour of need. On the morning of the exodus each man packed his saddle-bags, mounted a horse, and rode to his neighbour's spread, where he set fire to the shanty and shot the remaining horses--shot them to prevent them from being ill-treated by the Indians, who were believed to have rather more pragmatic attitudes with respect to livestock than did the horse-loving colonists.

I have a collection of Granny's dance programmes from balls held in rural Gloucestershire in the years 1903 to 1908. I will compile a list of the tunes played at those dances and post them here.

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 01:44 AM

Wow, that would be cool to see, Bob the Post.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Jim Lad
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 03:30 AM

Bruce: Thanks but I have a number of folks & groups in mind who have devoted most of their adult lives to the topics suggested by guest EB.
Bill Gallaher immediately comes to mind. He is one of the finest Canadian songwriters, I know and should be a headliner for such an event. His "Outlaws & Heroes" album contains such songs as "The Wild Mcleans" & "The Promise" and is, in fact, a Canadian Trilogy.
Rig-A-Jig & The Odd Hack Band are two marvelous groups who specialize in Contra Dance, English Dance and Scottish Country Dancing.
I am gradually spending more time on Canadian topics and have spent much of my adult life in the BC, Central Interior but remain first and foremost a "Celtic" entertainer. Not really what they're looking for.
For those who do not know Bill Gallaher; he is to Canada what Gordon Bok is to the New England States.

Subject: RE: Request from Canada for performers
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 08:10 AM

Turns out that tracking Granny's dance cards is a job for a data-base program, but here's a couple of samples.

Oddington Rectory
Dec. 19, 1907

Valse                Mandalay
Valse                Sobre Las Olas
Two-Step        La Mattiche
Valse                Merry Widow
Lancers               Country Girl
Valse                Eton Boating Song
Valse                Wein, Weib, und Gesang
Two-Step        La Petite Tonkinoise
Valse                La faute des Roses
Valse                Midsummer
Valse                Sourire d'Avril

SUPPER

Valse                Amoureuse
Valse                Choristers
Two-Step        Peter Piper
Valse                Gold and Silver
Lancers               Spring Chicken
Valse                Eldorado
Galop                John Peel



R. M. Academy
Dec. 13, 1908

EXTRA VALSE        
Lettre de manon

Valse                 Lysistrata
Valse                 Nuit Etoilee
Two-Step        Silver Heels
Valse                Merry Widow
Valse                Chanson de mon couer
Two-Step        Salome
Valse                Wein, Weib, und Gesang
Valse                Faute des roses
Two-Step        Hobomoko
Valse                Venus on Earth
Valse                Caresse Enivrante
Lancers               Girls of Gottenburg
Valse                Les Patineurs
Valse                Il Bacio

SUPPER
Valse                Amour Passager
Two-Step        Nigger's Alley

Valse                Verschmachte Liebe
Valse                Gold and Silver
Two-Step        Teddy Bear's Picnic
Valse                Waltz Dream
Valse                Contes d'Hoffmann

EXTRAS
Valse                Mondaine
Two-Step        Poppies
Valse                Eternelle Folie