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13 Aug 20 - 11:25 AM (#4068229) Subject: Back at it -- practising From: Charmion Once again, I'm back to picking tunes after an extended period of don't-wanna. This time it was lockdown and the low-grade dread that went with it, followed by everything cancelled and no-one to play with. But the other day I received a text from a fiddler I met last summer at the Goderich Celtic College; would I like to come over and play some diddly music? Would I ever. We sat six feet apart in her back yard and played Spootskerry (which she learned from me) and Jerry Holland's version of The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre (which I learned from her) for almost two hours. Then we made a date to do the same thing next Tuesday at my house. I'm flat-out astonished how much perkier I feel. How 'bout the rest of youse out there? |
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13 Aug 20 - 12:41 PM (#4068236) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: The Sandman yes i played music with someone outside yesterday |
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13 Aug 20 - 12:47 PM (#4068237) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: leeneia What a great story, Charmion. Thanks for sharing. Of course I had to find out what Spootiskerry is - a reel from the Shetlands, 1980's. Here's a link; music starts at 31 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag7Lm9q9ykM Myself, I'm working on the faux Renaissance dance that they play on Time Team when excavating Tudor sites. |
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13 Aug 20 - 01:56 PM (#4068252) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: Mo the caller Always think of a group of children with their teacher who played at Bromyard Festival. They knew that tune as 'spooky scary' |
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13 Aug 20 - 03:06 PM (#4068262) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: gillymor We follow The Banshee with it and they work well together. For now I play alone, it's too dang hot and humid down here in South Florida to play outside, bad on you and your instruments. |
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13 Aug 20 - 03:33 PM (#4068265) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: The Sandman spooteskerry means skerry rocks? its a great tune, as is the banshee |
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13 Aug 20 - 03:46 PM (#4068266) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: treewind The Spoot o'Skerry (Spoot = Spout) |
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13 Aug 20 - 05:03 PM (#4068272) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: The Sandman Spootiskerry (G) is a Shetland reel, and an early composition of Samuel Ian Rothmar Burns, known as Ian Burns (1932-1995). It was written in the early 1960s, and published along with many other tunes he wrote on a self-recorded cassette entitled “Spootiskerry” (1980). Ian Burns lived in Tingwall, but the title of this tune is the name of his family croft (i.e., farm) near the town of Sullom, in the north west of the Shetland Islands – though the Burns family is from Unst in the far north of the Shetland Islands. Nigel Gatherer writes, “It was originally spelt “Spootskerry”, but over the years an “i,” an “a,” or an “o” has been added.” So, it might show up as “Spootiskerry,” “Spoot O’Skerry,” “Spoot Askerry,” and sometimes mistakenly as “Spoots O’Kerry,” or some other strange thing. It has become extremely popular throughout the world. Razor clams (Ensis directus), or what the French call couteaux (knives), are long cylindrical clams having shells with sharp edges, and known in the Shetland islands as “spoots” – they spit out water as a defense mechanism. Roof gutters are also called “spoots” in the Shetlands and its vicinity. A “skerry” is a group of rocks a few feet below sea level, but sometimes visible at low tide. Duncan Ross Cameron offers this as the reason for another title, unfamiliar to me, “The Fateful Head.” In Scottish sessions this tune is often paired with another Shetland reel, “Willafjord.” At sessions in Canada it is often paired with “Reel de Montreal” (G) – which is the reel version of the hornpipe “Navvies on the Line” |
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13 Aug 20 - 08:44 PM (#4068287) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: Charmion I play Spootiskerry with Willafjord and The High Road to Linton — nice transition from G to D to A. I’ve never played it with the Reel de Montreal. Maybe tack that on the end of the string to end up back in G. |
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14 Aug 20 - 04:39 AM (#4068311) Subject: RE: Back at it -- practising From: The Sandman charmion it goes quite well with far from home and the shetland reel the full rigged ship, sometimes i put far from home in the middle |