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Your unfavourite session tunes?
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Subject: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: The Shambles Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:07 PM Is there a session tune that you dread to hear played, because it gets played to death or any other reason? Like that it's too difficult to play?
I am thinking of The Trumpet Hornpipe (or Captain Pugwash), which, I actually like but it does seem grind on some folk. I like it despite the fact that it reminds me of sorry days, listening to the TV programme whilst attempting to do my homework The Irish Washerwoman also seems to elicit some mixed responses. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Lena Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:16 PM The Butterfly. On the other hand,"Music for a fond Harmonium",from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra,is an overplayed tune which still gets me to cry for the excitements everytime it comes up at a session. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Banjo Johnny Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:21 PM Amazing Grace ... ONE MORE TIME! == Johnny in OKC |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Mbo Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:25 PM Um, I've never been to a session. But I'm getting kinda tired of the tune from "The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies". Also, the Butterfly, the Swallowtail, and the Kilfenora are kinda overplayed... --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Roger in Sheffield Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:36 PM Lena how could you Only just come across The Butterfly and like it Will people hate me for playing it then? Please no more Rakes of Mallow ! Horrible memories of the flute teacher saying "not quite right ..one more time (aaah)...practice that for next week" Roger |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Roger in Sheffield Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:39 PM Swallowtail?? Where can I find it? Roger |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:40 PM Ah, but I LIKE Rakes, I can play it real fast!! I hate Soldier's Joy, Devil's Dream, and Mack the Knife. Wishy-washy on Irish Washerwoman, tho. Usually only have to play it once a year.......guess when/where? BG! |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Mbo Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:51 PM Right here, Roger. --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Jon Freeman Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:56 PM Oh Well, I love all of the session tunes mentioned here. My least favorite is Morrisons - I'm not particularly fond of the tune and I had to play it every week for a couple of years - I grew sick of it. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Liz the Squeak Date: 18 Jul 00 - 04:12 PM Basically, anything they've played every week for about 6 months - it got to the point where one particular session I could time the pee breaks by which tune was playing - a set would start and I'd know that of these three I knew none and could go for a pee. There has to be some repetition, but surely not the same set every sodding week! Same goes for artists - a certain lady piper was first seen in 1984. 2 years later, I saw her again, and she did the identical set, even down to the pause for laughter at the three fingered fiddler joke. It fell flat, because practically everyone else there had heard it too many times as well.... she never did like me for mentioning this to her. Just as well, because I'm not that fond of her either! LTS |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:31 AM Mbo, at the risk of incurring your wrath, if you've never been to a session, how do you know those tunes are overplayed? Respectfully yours, Seamus |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Brendy Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:45 AM The Bucks of Oranmór (reel) Hammy Hamiltons (jig) The Beef Injection (a reel I made up one night in the Abbey in Chicago!!) The list is, in fact, endless. For, to paraphrase one recent commentator, "All tunes are treasures" B. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Brendy Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:48 AM Eh - those were actually my FAVOURITES. It's too early yet; I didn't read the heading close enough 'Unfavourites'? Don't know if I have any!! B. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: The Shambles Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:50 AM It is interesting and of some relief to me, as I do not really like to start to negative threads, that many tunes listed as unfavourite are appearing as others favourites. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: kendall Date: 19 Jul 00 - 09:45 AM Foggy minded breakdown. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Lena Date: 19 Jul 00 - 10:05 AM Apart from The Butterfly,there's another thing I cross myself at every session and pray it not to come up.It's a song.Which one?!Of course,Scarborough Fair.Goodness me if I can understand why people does covers of it! Besides,I nearly get feminist about it.Who's this bloke who not only leaves this woman(I can bet he left her),but takes her for his personal,free tailor?! Aaah. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Brendy Date: 19 Jul 00 - 10:18 AM 'Unfavourite':- Whiskey in the Jar B. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Mbo Date: 19 Jul 00 - 10:20 AM Lena, there's about 8 trillion songs along the same lines all over the British Isles. No one gets up in arms about them anymore. But it shows what a line of disgusting bastards us men descend from. There are some happier ones, though, and I prefer to listen to them. --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: IanS Date: 19 Jul 00 - 10:29 AM I hate Staton Island. The main riff in it just rubs me up the wrong way. On the other hand I always enjoy playing the Butterfly !!! The Bucks of Oranmór (reel) Hammy Hamiltons (jig) Both cracking tunes. Ian |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,KingBrilliant Date: 19 Jul 00 - 11:04 AM Omigod!! Yet more things to be paranoid about. Fair enough if the problem is endless repetition in the same session group - but does anyone else find themselves shrinking at the thought of playing anything at all now, in case its universally despised? Well, play and be damned I suppose.... Kris |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,AF at office Date: 19 Jul 00 - 11:51 AM For some reason, after umpteen years of playing along on guitar to tunes played mainly on melodeons or concertinas, I find myself yearning to play in some key other than C,F,G or D! Someone turned up with a clarinet - whoopee, B flat for a change - not so, it was an A clarinet, and the player proceded to fit in with the DG mob! The names of the tunes seldom come to my attention, since the free reed mafia communicate with the first three notes of any tune without announcing it. I recently attended a session where there were 14 melodeons present. After that evening, I seriously considered that there should be a limit to the number of melodeons in any one pub ("one" would be good here!). IMHO things are getting out of hand, at least here in Essex, UK. Tunes are great for the musicians, and possibly for dancers, but have little or no entertainment value for the average member of the audience, especially when they are repeated ad infinitum and/or are indistinguishable from each other. Free reed instruments in less than totally expert hands have only pitch and duration, dynamics seem totally lacking. And some of my best friends are (were?) melodeon players! |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: The Shambles Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:09 PM Nice to see that there is no need to get paranoid (unless you are a 'box' player) and it is encouraging for those who have been learning a tune, only to find that is someone else's dread, to see that dread is not shared universally.
The strength of a session is everyone being able to play together. To do that everyone needs to know the tune being played. It is not somewhat strange when a tune that everyone knows and can play together is then considered 'old hat' ? There is not much worse than when only the more obscure tunes are played and the majority of players can only watch and admire. Trying to meet a balance is probably best.. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Bert Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:34 PM Like Banjo Johnny, I would like to go to a session where they didn't play Amazing Grace, OR Will the Circle be Unbroken. JUST ONCE, that's all I ask, JUST ONCE. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Gervase Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:34 PM As an occasional box player, I have to say that I can't abide some of the clumping English tunes like Winster Gallop or Dorset Four Hand Reel - but only because they were the ones with which I taught myself to play the box for a dance band, and I played them to death then and while busking down the Underground. Now, for me, the Dorset 4HR will forever bring back a faint tang of urine and the accoustics of the South Kensington foot tunnel. Similarly with songs; the ones I tend to avoid or dislike are usually those with a connotation rather than those that simply don't sound good. But the Wild Rover fits every criterion for never being heard again in my book! |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Liz the Squeak Date: 19 Jul 00 - 06:40 PM Gervase - my granny taught me to dance the D4HR, I'll be having words with you at Towersey...... At least you are only an occasional box player though, better than sitting through the same piece 16 times when the SO is learning a new one. Particularly if it one that I know. Makes you want to learn to play the damn thing just to show him how to do it right! LTS |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Gervase Date: 19 Jul 00 - 08:15 PM Ouch! When I was learning I was banished to the garage at the bottom of the garden, which had a deep, concrete-lined inspection pit, roofed over with old railway sleepers. I'd have to clamber down into the pit, squat among the demijohns of fermenting beer, and practice away secure in the knwledge that I was muffled enogh not to get bollocked by anyone - bar the odd passing cat. Thus the Dorset 4HR always makes me feel like an alcoholic troglodyte |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Lena Date: 20 Jul 00 - 01:52 AM I don't think it to be a paranoid thing.It's just allow ourselves to be nasty together. At the end of the thread,everybody will get back to the tunes like nothing was discussed... |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Liz the Squeak Date: 20 Jul 00 - 02:32 AM Gervase, any time you want to be an alcoholic troglogdyte, just let me know! Oh, and I loathe 'Jimmy Allen' because it was the one tune an acquaintance could play sober and drunk. As he spent most of his time as the latter, it got very boring..... LTS |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Peter Kasin Date: 20 Jul 00 - 04:15 AM Denis Murphy's polka, The Rose Tree, and most other "top 20" session tunes don't do much for me anymore. They're fine tunes,just heard them too much and I'm too jaded on them. Of tunes I never liked in the first place, I'd have to rank "Squirrel Up A Tree" (a jig) right up there, or down there. I always thought it should have been a theme for a 1950's kiddie TV show. I generally don't go in for the "skippity-hop" variety jigs. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Bat Goddess Date: 20 Jul 00 - 07:55 AM I'm about O'Carolan-ed to death. And it's not that they aren't good tunes. I'm just sick of hearing them all the time. (And, while he was a very talented composer, they all seem to bear his signature and sound enough alike to identify them as his. And "Song for Ireland" as far as vocals go. Bat Goddess |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 20 Jul 00 - 10:02 AM Rattlin Bog and Donkey Riding, which may suprise people who know me as they are the only tunes I can play.......er when drunk Patrish |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: L R Mole Date: 20 Jul 00 - 10:25 AM Well, not to break the Celtic monopoly (mon o'poly?), but I cringe every time someone suggests "Stormy Monday", the "Amazing Grace" of the blues band. As they say, first you look at your watch, and then you listen to your watch.And when someone walks in with a flute case, I KNOW the Moondance card will be dealt within the hour. No, it is NOT a marvelous night. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Bernard Date: 20 Jul 00 - 08:19 PM Those over-long, mournful 'French' tunes which are so, so, so, so repetetetive, and take no skill to play! Those who play them just glaze over, go into a trance, and the musical diarrhoea oozes out! What do you call a melodeon at the bottom of the sea? A JOLLY GOOD START!! |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: death by whisky Date: 20 Jul 00 - 08:50 PM Dingle Regatta.Doe's anyone else do the stand up sit down thing at the start of part three,or is it two,or MMM! |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Bernard Date: 20 Jul 00 - 09:13 PM It's the third bit (the 'C' music to be technicackle), and it's also trad to yell 'Hi-yo diddly doh!' as tunelessly as possibly whilst struggling to one's feet! |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 20 Jul 00 - 10:18 PM The Irish Washerwoman is definitely worth a mention. And for some reason long since lost in the recesses of my deep heart's core, I bracket it with a reel called Saddle the Donkey. (Was I condemned to learn them both on a school recorder?) But as thread creep has already allowed a song or two to sneak in, I really must put in a word for The Barley Mow, which was almost unavoidable in the English (midlands and northern) folk clubs of my youth. It is a staggeringly tedious dirge, usually projected with a frightening surfeit of kinetic energy and general good humour. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,BANJO JOHNNY Date: 21 Jul 00 - 02:14 AM Now you know how the big-band players feel about having to play "In the Mood" every time they get on the stand. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Jim Krause Date: 21 Jul 00 - 02:22 PM Without doubt my most unfavorite session tune is "B'ile 'em Cabbage Down." I was once at a session and the solos came 'round the circle clockwise. When it was my turn, I tried every way I could to screw it up, mess with it, anything. To my chagrin, everything I played worked! AAAUUUGGGHHH!!! Soddy |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Peter T. Date: 21 Jul 00 - 03:21 PM This will I am sure shock some people, but I have heard "Danny Boy" done a million times, by good people, bad people, drunks, idiots, tuneless wonders, and I still like hearing it. Sentimentalist, I am afraid. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: bill\sables Date: 21 Jul 00 - 05:04 PM The tunes I hate most at sessions are any ones played for the third time through, twice is more than enough for me |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Roger in Sheffield Date: 21 Jul 00 - 05:40 PM Is Saddle the Donkey like a slow air version of Saddle the Pony??? |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Kristi Date: 21 Jul 00 - 06:05 PM It's kind of funny, I've only heard of about half of the unfortunates listed here. Down in the south here in Florida, it's the d tunes mostly, Whiskey before breakfast, LIberty, Soldier's Joy etc. But they are also tunes I still enjoy playing because you never know what they will segue into. Sessions(we call them jams) are usually a mix of diverse abled players so tunes tend to be repetitive so eveyone can participate, it's the nature of the beast. Kristi |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: death by whisky Date: 21 Jul 00 - 08:00 PM Iheard a 14 yr old fiddler play Danny Boy the other night and it was stunning. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Rosebrook Date: 21 Jul 00 - 09:06 PM The tune that I would consider my most unfavorite is Harvest Home. Egads, I just REALLY dislike the sound of that tune! And it is not because I hear it so often, and therefore am sick to death of it. I just don't enjoy the sound of it. It kind of reminds me of a child's taunt, "Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyyyyyaaaaaaaah, nyah!!" I find that tune particularly annoying. There are lots of tunes that I have heard over and over and over and over many, many times that I still find enjoyable, such as Road to Lisdonnvarna and Banish Misfortune. But that Harvest Home has just got to go !! Rose |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Liz the Squeak Date: 21 Jul 00 - 09:10 PM Perhaps we all ought to swap locations for a week or so, because it seems that the southerners are getting sick of a different set of tunes to the northerners..... that's north of Watford Gap....UK... Any one up for it?? LTS |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Peter Kasin Date: 22 Jul 00 - 02:04 AM Danny Boy was sung by a man passing through town at an Irish session in Berkeley, CA hosted by Shay Black. This man had a sweet voice, and was getting dramatic with the song, fluttering his eyelashes and dipping the ends of phrases up and down. At the end of it, Shay stands up and say's "Thank you. Thank you. Not a dry seat in the house!" There certainly wasn't one after Shay's ad lib. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Nicole Leonard Date: 22 Jul 00 - 04:07 AM I like the Butterfly, Morrison's, Swallows Tail and Staten Island! Got extremely sick of 'Music for a found harmonium' and those two Sharon Shannon tunes I can't remember the name of (the mindlessly cheerful-sounding ones). Also can't stand 'Dirty Old Town', 'Raglan Road' and 'Brown-eyed Girl'. I love Carolan, but not the way he's usually played at sessions. My current favourites are 'Rakes of Kildare' and 'Austin Barretts'. Is 'Saddle the Donkey' anything like 'Shoe the Donkey'? Local sessions usually involve approximately three fiddles, two tin whistles, two guitars, maybe a tenor banjo, plus ten bodhrans!
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: The Shambles Date: 22 Jul 00 - 05:07 PM I think the problem with playing them only twice, is that it sometimes take playing it twice before folk recognise what the tune being played is. When they do it's over.... |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Ely Date: 22 Jul 00 - 06:22 PM "Londonderry Air" was forever ruined for me by "Danny Boy". I've always hated "Old Joe Clark", tune, words, everything about it. I like "Angeline the Baker" but I hate playing it on the dulcimer. A fiddler friend of mine often requests "Run-Down Boot", which makes me want to get up and leave. Mostly, I go crazy when the group with which I'm playing insists on going through dozens and dozens of songs at slow to medium speeds because they're afraid to play fast. "Rosin the Bow" is NOT a dirge. I can understand playing slowly to learn, but after you've been playing the basic version for two years, you should be able to get it up to speed. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Brendy Date: 23 Jul 00 - 06:30 AM I heard Tommy Flanagan sing 'Danny Boy' with De Danann at the Oslo Irish Week a couple of years back. Not only were the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attentention throughout the rendition, but I actually believe I was in tears at the end of it! The ease with which he hit all the high notes was unbelievable, and his phrasing was immaculate. Talking to him later, he complained that his chest and throat were in bits from a bad cold that he had, and he wasn't totally pleased with his performance of it. I told him that I could live with his colds if it made me sing like that! Little known fact: Pet hate: B. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 23 Jul 00 - 07:01 AM OK, confession time. There may well be a tune called Saddle the Donkey, but it turns out that I did indeed mean Saddle the Pony - my memory's been too close to my loudspeaker magnets again. Which leads me to another confession: I often find it easier to remember a tune than its name. I would ask whether anyone has the same trouble, but I that would be for another thread. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: gillymor Date: 23 Jul 00 - 07:49 AM Some Godhead may strike me down for saying this but if I never hear Farther Along or Circle be Unbroken at our winter song circles again I won't get too upset (also our traditional closer Goodnight Irene). All great songs, just too damn familiar. Also Whiskey 'fore Breakfast and Red Haired Boy are starting to lose their luster for me but as long as one person is getting off on them I say let it fly. I still love Danny Boy in spite of all the terrible things that I've heard done to it in Irish-style pubs here in the states. It seems like everyone of these establishments with a band at some point during the evening has the owner up and/or some of the more prodigious quaffers to render (flagellate) it. Hearing a snippet of a woozy Shane McGowan sing it in a pub on a PBS special concerning the song kind of renewed my affection for it. Frankie
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: sophocleese Date: 23 Jul 00 - 08:55 AM Oh dear, at a British Night two days ago somebody requested knew Danny Boy. I've heard it many's the time but I haven't actually sung it so we had to refuse. I'm planning on learning it properly once my throat has fully recovered from Strep. Soddy, I agree Bile "em Cabbage Down is one of the most boring tunes imaginable. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Noreen Date: 23 Jul 00 - 10:47 AM I still love Danny Boy, despite the poor lad being regularly murdered. I've also thought of the song differently since hearing Richard Thompson doing his rock version- catch it if you can! Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: death by whisky Date: 23 Jul 00 - 08:58 PM Brendy.(*BG*)..? Went to a session last night were most of the tunes mentioned were played,and yes,the grand finale was Dingle Regatta,including up.down diddle de da... It was BRILLIANT.Its back on my list. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Banjo Johnny Date: 23 Jul 00 - 09:31 PM At one of our local folk clubs a school teacher brought in a bunch of very young kids. The wanted to hear the Barney Song. We did the Barney Song. They loved it. Music is for the audience. == Johnny in Oklahoma City |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Jon Freeman Date: 23 Jul 00 - 09:37 PM Death by Whisky, I'm glad your back to liking Dingle Regatta and yes, I do the up down bit - love it! Jon |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 23 Jul 00 - 10:06 PM I certainly became heartily sick of the Boys of Bluehill/ Harvest Home set after having to play it several times a week for about 7 years. Now that I don't do sessions so regularly, I've started to like it again, provided I can play it with a dotted rhythm almost strong enough to turn the Hornpipes into Strathspeys, but if somebody (usually a person who has only ever heard recent Irish versions) starts it off as a fast reel... well, I could cheerfully do murder. Malcolm |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Thomas the Rhymer Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:57 AM Anything Eagles, but especially desperado... Buffet, Particularly after the first one... Beatles, if it is the exact version we all knew... Pop in general turns me off. I love a go at anything "traditional",... especially variety!...But when everyone is singing, little known languages can be tough, if not led properly. ttr |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Peter Kasin Date: 24 Jul 00 - 04:05 AM Being a fan of slapstick comedy, I have to say I will probably never tire of the Dingle Regatta stand up /sit down thing. Also, Harvest home is definitely not in the "Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah Nyahhh" category. It's in the "Neener, neener, neener, neener" category. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: gillymor Date: 25 Jul 00 - 12:08 AM Noreen, where is RT's version to be found? Regards, Frankie |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: GUEST,Ely Date: 25 Jul 00 - 01:51 AM Come to think of it, "Whiskey Before Breakfast" is starting to wear on me, too. Same with "Soldier's Joy". "Lorena" was all the rage among my acquaintances for awhile and I didn't like it much to begin with. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Brendy Date: 25 Jul 00 - 02:04 AM All the same, though, Chris Newman does a cracking version of 'Soldiers Joy' on Fred Wedlock's 'Oldest Swinger in Town' album. B. |
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Subject: RE: Your unfavourite session tunes? From: Albatross Date: 25 Jul 00 - 08:41 AM Shepherd's Hey beats donkey riding, davy davy knick knack, winster gallop and rakes of marlow for boredom but... The old swan band play a refreshing version of winster gallop which stirs a lot of life into it (first record called "no reels!") and there is one of my favourite recordings done by richard attenborough in 1943 by the BBC! in cornwall of the Boscastle players (Topicrecords) called the boscastle breakdown which is a superb variation of the dorset four hand reel. In the old days it seems they never played a simple tune the same twice, it makes it more interesting to play harmonies to jimmy allen,etc then its more fun! |
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