What's your story, Rog?
Well... the way I originally got into this music was through dancing
reels with family and friends, in the dance-style of the Highland
Balls, a tradition that's easily maligned due to its class
connections, but one that I feel is important, as being neither the
high style of the RSCDS nor the country style of the usual
Scottish ceilidh; the traditional dances and tunes still play a very
strong role. For those that haven't tried it, the nearest other dance
tradition in spirit that I've found is perhaps Contra which seems to
have the same kind of emphasis on fun, fast turns, and close
association of dance with music.
I'd always loved the music too, but although I was taught the violin,
I knew no-one that played the fiddle so, beyond a scrapy rendition of
the Drunken Piper, and Hamilton House, I never associated the two.
That changed a little when I was drafted in to play in the extras
band (a scratch band that plays one number when the real band have a
break) at the Skye Balls one year, great fun, but still reading from
music, a bare substitute for the real thing.
This started to change after some years, when I started discovering
folk music, something I hadn't known existed in the modern world, and
in particular I encountered a folk night at a pub near where I lived
in York. This gave me an incentive to drag the fiddle out from where
it had been mouldering in its case and try to actually play some of
this stuff. One thing led to another; I discovered a proper session,
abandoned written music, obtained a decent sounding fiddle and started
to really enjoy playing.
And ten years down the line, I find myself in a place where I seem to
be half way between several worlds - I'm happy in the local session
scene, play along with a bit of old timey kinda stuff on Sundays,
enjoy trying to make up accompaniment for folks singing songs, but my
heart is still with those old scots tunes and the infectious dancing
that goes with them. I just can't get enough of them!
Which is why it was so nice, the other weekend, to encounter these
folks from Boston that knew loads of Scottish tunes, a joy to play
along with. One of them, a guy named Tom Pixton, fantastic on the box
and piano, sent me a CD he'd done with Lissa Schneckenburger (who
plays with Hanneke) with some excellent stuff on it, highly
recommended (http://www.pixton.org/scottishinsalem/sallycd.html),
which kind of brings this post full circle, I guess!
You asked for it!
cheers,
rog.
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