> 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. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
