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 The CD is now sold out. Since we still get really happy every time we get together and play, we really should make another. Too bad we're so geographically challenged. It doesn't seem to stop us from playing a hot dance now and again, but I kind of think a new CD would be tough. |
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Miss Shepherd's Reel |
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The Growling Old Man & The Grumbling Old Woman |
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| Waltzes | More Waltzes | Still More Waltzes |
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As Laurie Sleeps in the Dawn Amelia's Waltz Ashokan Farewell Beautiful Stranger Waltz Blues for Dave Caesar's Waltz Call it a Night Cantares di Mi Tierra Cascata de Lagrimas The Clock Stopped The Dancer End of Summer Judy and Jim's Wedding |
Lezlie's Waltz Lisa Lisa Margaret's Waltz Medyatsiner Waltz Melancholy Waltz The Merry Waltz Metsakukkia Nancy's Waltz Planxty Fanny Power Shamus O'Brien's Waltz Sheebeg and Sheemore Soir et Matin Southwind |
Star of the County Down Steciak's Steve and Betty's Tales from the DeSoto Woods Tosvalsen Tunturisatu Two Rivers Utpick Waltz Valse Aldor Weathered Inn Waltz Wedding at Cleary Lake Wind in the Hills The Wood Duck |
We also play Tangos, Hambos, Schottisches, Polkas, Zwiefachers, One-step, and Swing.
Stringdancer was born at the very last Kimmswick dance weekend held at the Lee's farm. It was a pretty wild and wonderful weekend, even by Contradance standards. Sort of like the old days, we heard.
Anyway, Pam and I were playing waltzes on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Kimmswick.
Contradancers don't usually drink very much alcohol - no one likes a stumbledrunk on the dance floor, and besides, life is good when you dance, and the need for a drink kind of goes away. BUT, it was a special weekend, and Karen and Dan had put out some champagne and strawberries in celebration of their anniversary, and Ken and Laura had spiked some tea with rum in celebration of theirs, so I suppose we could have been a little Under the Influence.
David had joined the waltz musicians, and after the waltzes were over, asked me if I knew any old-time tunes. I had been a classical musician - freelanced in Boston for many years but quit about four years before I moved to St. Louis. "Two," I said. "One of them is the Devil's Dream, and the other one isn't."
Well, after we played my only two fiddle tunes, we pulled out the Fiddler's Fake Book and played a few more. I think it was George Booker that got me, or maybe Leather Britches. Or Red Haired Boy, or After the Battle of Aughrim. Anyway, it became clear to me that playing fiddle tunes could be hot music-making.
So when David said he wanted to form a "New England Style" contradance band, I had no idea what that meant, but figured it would be fun.
And Pam. I'd always liked playing with Pam, and I like the sound of two fiddles. So we began.
We played through stacks of tunes for several months, looking for our favorites among the ones most commonly played at contradances on the East coast, listening to Uncle Gizmo, Nightingale, the String Beings, the Hillbillies from Mars, Wild Asparagus, Yankee Ingenuity, Grand Picnic. We picked some of our favorites from the tunes played at contradances here in St. Louis, too - and we listened to Rhys Jones, the Volo Bogtrotters, the Ill-Mo Boys.
When we had picked out about 60 or so tunes, we xeroxed them all, then laid them all out all over my living room in stacks: New England tunes, Irish tunes, Old-time tunes, tunes in A major, tunes in e minor.
David had posted a question on the rec.folk-dancing newsgroup about putting together dance tune medleys, and we tried to apply the (often contradictory) recommendations, but found that the only real way to tell if two tunes go well together was to try them. Breaking the rules worked just about as well as following them.
After we had assembled a dance-length group of medleys we got Childgrove to put us on the schedule on February 4, 1996. Our first gig. The crowd loved us, but then, they would have loved us no matter what we did. We were one of them, we were dancers. It's not how well the bear dances, but that the bear dances at all...
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Point pictures.
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