Bill H - Posted - 09/17/2022:  04:17:11

I attended my first workshop last night hosted by a New Hampshire contra dance fiddler. Her aim is to prepare musicians to play in a contra dance band. My repertoire over the years had been built around the typical old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes handed down from folks like Tommy Jarrell, Henry Reed, Mike and Pete Seeger, and the tunes collected by Alan Lomax. Since I live in New England, I have often been curious about local traditional music. Now it seems I have made a shift and headed off in a new direction.

There is certainly overlap with old time southern tunes and New England music, but my take is that there is a stronger influence from our northern neighbors in Cape Bretton and Quebec. Celtic style jigs are abundant and the most challenging for me to tackle. And French-Canadian tunes, while interesting, have a whole different flavor and tempo than what I have previously played. The music is all about the dancing. About the connection between the musicians and the dancers.

I would be interested in hearing from other banjo players and their experience with playing traditional New England dance music. I have been working on tabbing out some of the tunes and will likely post them as I progress and get the bugs worked out.

John Schleich - Posted - 09/17/2022:  04:26:35

Bill, sounds very interesting I hope you post some tabs as well. Who was the fiddle
player you saw?

ccg - Posted - 09/17/2022:  04:54:00

Stuart Kenney has played bass and banjo in a lot of contra bands, Wild Asparagus, Air Dance, Tidal wave....He runs the contra dances at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield Ma. You may want to talk to him. He's on facebook and is probably a member here.

Bill H - Posted - 09/17/2022:  07:35:37

quote:

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Originally posted by John Schleich

Bill, sounds very interesting I hope you post some tabs as well. Who was the fiddle

player you saw?

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Jacqueline Lauffman is the fiddler leading the workshop along with Beverly Woods. The sessions are once a month through December. 

Bill H - Posted - 09/17/2022:  08:00:08

John, here are tabs of three of the tunes we played:

Ding Dong Merrily on High claw hammer

Jefferson and Liberty  three finger

Joys of Quebec claw hammer

Ding Dong Merrily on High sounds like a silly title, but the B part is a workout at fiddle speed.

dbrooks - Posted - 09/17/2022:  09:01:23

I'm teaching a clawhammer class on Dance Tunes at the Louisville Folk School featuring tunes that we play at the local weekly contra dances. We do play a few New England and French Canadian tunes. It will be fun to take a look at these. Thanks.

I should add these books are available as well:

Ken Perlman, Celtic and New England Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo

Bob Solosko, Clawhammer Dances: Contra and English Country Dances Arranged for Melodic Clawhammer Banjo (may be out of print)

David

Edited by - dbrooks on 09/17/2022 09:10:35

John Schleich - Posted - 09/18/2022:  03:50:48

Bill, thank you very much for the info and the tabs, John

WVDreamin - Posted - 09/18/2022:  08:59:28

I play regularly for contras and we play mostly Appalachian old time and a few Irish jig sets and three or four Canadian tunes, because I'm the fiddler and that is what I know. Those tunes work fine as long as they are square and the right length. I've not delved much into the Northeast repertoire mostly because I have plenty of tunes and less learning time than I used to have.
I say good on you for on wanting to learn your regional style.

mandobanjolibrarian - Posted - 09/18/2022:  16:26:46

quote:

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Originally posted by Bill H

I would be interested in hearing from other banjo players and their experience with playing traditional New England dance music. I have been working on tabbing out some of the tunes and will likely post them as I progress and get the bugs worked out.

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Please do!  This is an area I'm interested in exploring as well, and it sounds like we're not alone.  Recommendations for recordings would be very welcome, too, from members who know this music well.

Don Borchelt - Posted - 09/18/2022:  17:34:04

quote:

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Jacqueline Lauffman is the fiddler leading the workshop along with Beverly Woods...

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When my wife and I were first married back in 1975, we used to go to contra dances fairly often around Boston and southern New Hampshire, including a few with The Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra, led by Jacqueline's husband Dudley Laufman.   He was a legend even then.  Some years after my wife passed away in 1992, the mother of one of my young son's friends invited me to come with her to a nearby contra dance; she wasn't subtle about it, she was hoping she could match me up with somebody.  But the atmosphere had changed, the relaxed and freewheeling feeling of the dances in the mid-70s had become rigid and rule bound, and I didn't enjoy myself.  Not long after that, I read a guest editorial in the Old Time Herald written by Dudley Laufman, where he expressed the same complaint.  Tell me it's gotten better. 

- Don B.

Edited by - Don Borchelt on 09/18/2022 17:35:04

dbrooks - Posted - 09/18/2022:  17:40:51

Don Borchelt - The weekly dances here in Louisville are both lively and friendly, as I see them from the stage as one of the musicians. The Louisville Country Dancers are now in something of a rebuilding mode as they come out of the Covid period when dances were suspended. Prior to March 2021, there would be 100-120 dances in the hall. Now there may be 30-40.

Here is a 2014 article from a local magazine that captures a newcomer's entry to contra dancing. I think the friendly, welcoming spirit is still there today.

David

Contra Article - Louisville Magazine