IDuck Quacked us out a new one, with the help of my Grandson, Roro:  http://youtu.be/pkEG9tpeQCI  A new one for me to learn... yippeee!  Don't forget we've still got a few days left for Cindy... plus, if you need to hear how the new tune goes, get some tab, or get a backup track, http://oldtimejam.com  has all that good stuff.  Ok... we got work to do... let's get going!  Enjoy!

This should be a fun one - well picked Roro! One I've always kinda sorta known, but not really, just faked my way thought it when it would come up in a circle. It'll be nice to really work on it.

Looking forward to hearing what wonderful things you end up doing with it! And yes, that Roro sure can pick a tune outta the duck, can't he??? Lol, he's Granny's boy!

I was busy with other things and missed out on the last one, guess i need to get on this one  :)

Yep, better hop on board and don't miss the fun this time!!!

didnt have a chance to do cindy but did the first two. love st annes reel looking forward to it. I even have most of my shoulder function back so this should be fun

kathy c in ky

Glad to hear your shoulder is better, Kathy. I know you love to play.

Lookin forward to hearing everybody's...I gotta learn the thing...don't know it but I did listen to it and it sounds familiar enough, so I guess I've heard it here and there. Hopefully won't be too tough to learn!!!

St. Anne's Reel it is!!  Yet another tune I do not play currently, but shall add it to my repertoire!  I have heard it many times but never learned it.  This fiddle festival is a really fun way for me to learn some more Old Time tunes!  

For a little inspiration here's a classic version by Don Messer and all the Islanders:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNCyddtqZEU

For note readers there are two versions at the Fiddler's Companion: http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/ST..htm  One from Don Messer as St. Agathe's, and one from Jay Ungar as St. Anne's. There's also one at the Session.

Wow...that was a good one on that YouTube...didnt expect the dancing but I sure did love it...wish I could dance, but when I searched out a clogging club and took lessons a few years back the only good that came from it was that I was always the class idiot, in each step f the way, so the others never had to worry too much...lol...but I sure do love the dancing! Thanks, Doug!

Oh boy.  One I actually know!!

Well, I'm sorry I had to bow out of the last tune also.  End of the school year is the busiest time for me.  While stuff is still going on round here, this is one that is special to me.  I have been trying to play this tune well for most of my fiddle career (which is short).   But of all tunes I've learned, played, and let slip away, this one is still played almost every day.  I have improved somewhat slowly over the years at it, but it still eludes me.  I am driven to keep at it until I can play it to the standard I have in my head.

My favorite part is the B part, which when played just so, is so very beautiful to my ears.  This B part is also my nemesis as I just can't get the intonation right.  First time though the tune is usually the best for me, then it starts to go downhill as this notey tune starts to tire me out.  I love the way it sounds on a mandolin too.  

Edited by - Andah1andah2 on 05/14/2012 18:41:11

I think sometimes the beautiful parts are the hardest to get right just because we are too awestruck by the bewuty of the thing to get down and gritty enough with them to find what we know is in there...anyway...I'm looking forward to trying to learn this one...crazy busy times here too...gee, fiddling would sure be a lt easier if life could slw down just a little bit, wouldnt it? Just a little tiny bit!

Hadn't been around for a little while because of work. They had us slaving to the grind but its finally slowing down a bit, so I'm gonna try and learn this. 

Also learned some other tunes since I've been away and going to record one of them soon called"Going down to Cairo" It goes by a few different names actually.

Glad you'll be joining us again, NC Fiddler...I've heard Going down to Cairo too and look forward to hearing yours...of course I'm just as anxious to hear your St Anne's Reel too...busy, busy times...it messes with the important stuff, doesn't it?

Oh Boy... I just discovered this tune I'd heard somewhere, sometime before (like the lyrics say) is also a ballad... and I love reels and I love ballads... and there is a Ballad of St. Anne's Reel http://youtu.be/ApAcCIHZSYE very Irish Sounding, Old Country style... and here is John Denver Americanizing it some for us over here in the new country ... http://youtu.be/YQsVQDQHtnM  Wow.... that makes this tune even more exciting than I thought!!!!  Now... to find the time to learn all this stuff... lol... maybe a few years'd do it for me, but we've only got a month... better grab every minute we can!

The song was written by David Mallet, who's from Maine. Its not particularly old, but the Irish have borrowed it - especially Liam Clancy and the Dubliners.

One I know!! St. Anne's Reel is one of the first tunes I learned. I'll try to incorporate some of what I've learned since then.

Listened to several versions and I am trying to learn Dan Levenson's version.

Edited by - NCarolinaFiddler on 05/20/2012 10:28:03

here's a link to the first St. Anne's Reel posted (in a separate thread) - by member 'erbus' http://www.fiddlehangout.com/topic/28151

Edited by - fiddle and banjo player on 05/20/2012 17:58:22

Thanks for linking it, fiddle&banjo! That was a real good one! I still need to start learning it...lol...hopefully I might be able to find some time to get started today...took my fiddle to TN over the weekend but there really wasn't any time for it. How's everybody else doing? NC Fiddler, looking forward to hearing you play Fiddle-Dan's version!

Got about an hour or so to mess around with it this morning...mine kept morphing into Shove that Pigs Foot, if I wasn't careful...but I think I finally stared getting my head on straight. Pretty exhausted from our last trip to TN, plus then while I was gone a good ol wasp got a nest going right where I open up the chicken door to get the eggs...popped me a good one and it made my arm swell up pretty bad...feels almost like a blood pressure cuff is stuck around my elbow...that plus the poison ivy I've had for the past three weeks plus exhaustion...whew, no wonder mine keeps morphing into something else...I'm just too tired to think the same tune all the way through! Oh yeah, and in case anybody here was planning on taking I75 through the northern part of E TN, you're in for a big, big, big surprise...like its closed down because the highway is 150 ft down the mt by now! It's a real mess!!!!! Theyve been working on it all spring but it slid a lt worse since the last time we were there, just a week or two ago. Anyway...one f these days when the swelling goes down and I get my energy level back to reasonable I'll be gettin a St. Anne's Reel up! And I promise I won't let it morph into Shove that Pig's Foot!

Edited by - groundhogpeggy on 05/21/2012 10:29:30

This is a very familiar tune to most of you, it sounds like, but just in case you want to refer to some printed notes, this is a really good version because it lays under the fingers easily.

DougD--I had no idea this tune was so new! Thanks for that tip!

I'll be uploading my video soon!  --Lora

St. Anne's Reel sheet music

Lora, the tune isn't new, its the song by David Mallet that utilizes the tune to tell a story that is. I think the origins of "St. Anne's Reel" are obscure, with the first recording being about 1930. I think Don Messer's playing, which I linked to earlier, did a lot to popularize this tune throughout Canada and the northeast US. erbus' rendition is certainly reminiscent of Don Messer's playing. There are a couple notations at the Fiddler's Companion, which I linked to earlier.

The way I play this is maybe close to what you posted, but Don Messer (and erbus) play an arpeggio in measures 2 and 3 that I want to learn.

Edited by - DougD on 05/21/2012 17:02:16

Ok guys, here's the best I could do with limited time. (isn't that always the case?) Anyway, I wish my back-up chords were better in tune, but I don't have time to re-do.

It took me awhile to realize that Old Time Jam is doing a little bit of a "swing" on this tune, and once I got into the swing feel, it was much easier!  ---Lora

VIDEO: St Anne's Reel--Lora's demo (click to view)