Re: [HD] What tunes do you play in your area?

[Dave Lovelace <davelovelace@gmail.com>]

(I've read several earlier posts replying to Heli's original post.)

This question is complicated by the fact that there are different groups with different repertoires, cutting across any regional differences. Even if you just go from playing (say) contradance music in one area to playing contradance music in another, some of the musicians in one area or the other may only incidentally play for contras, preferring to play (say) Irish. That will affect the tunes that person knows, & thence maybe what gets played at dances.

But if you go from playing in (say) an old-time jam in one area to playing in (say) bluegrass jams elsewhere, you're definitely going to find repertoire differences that go way beyond the regional ones (which are no doubt there too). OT & BG have a big overlap of repertoire, handled very differently, but a lot of material not in common, too.

So when Vicki says she's never heard of any of the tunes Mark listed, I'm pretty sure location doesn't have much to do with it. I've only heard of a couple he mentions, but Friend of the Devil & Queen Jane Approximately are both 60s folk-rock (Grateful Dead & Bob Dylan respectively); I'm guessing that the others are rock tunes too. Â(Aha. Mark's signature line "Rock and Roll Hammered Dulcimer" should have been a dead giveaway; I'd missed it.) ÂPeople who play mostly fiddle tunes, or mostly southern gospel, or mostly hymns aren't likely to overlap very much with those who like 40s or 50s jazz songs or rock (or for that matter contemporary jazz, which some oh this list play).

Having said all that, I'm NOT intending to discourage anyone from replying to Heli's original request. These lists are interesting. But if you tend to play some specific genre, you might mention that.

I'm not going to offer a list of my own. These days I mostly don't frequent dulcimer-oriented jams. I play with some mostly paper-trained contradance musicians, so the bulk of our repertoire comes from some tune books (the Ruffwater book, the Portland books, the Waltz Books), & also play for Scottish country dancing (sets of tunes chosen mostly from Susie Petrov's book & Liz Donaldson's blue & pink books, with handouts for the original tunes of many dances). Hard to come up with a meaningful, brief list. The Scottish things are chosen to go with specific dances being taught or just danced. The contra repertoire has varied a lot, partly due to the floating & changing membership of the group. Things we used to play all the time just 3 or 4 years ago are completely unfamiliar to a lot of our current musicians. Â(So you'd at best get a snapshot of tunes we play a lot *now*.)

--Â

-- Dave Lovelace
ÂÂ davelovelace at gmail dot com

On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 11:53 PM, Heli L. Roosild <heliel@earthlink.net> wrote:

Several years ago (now), I moved from Northern Virginia to New Mexico (Albuquerque, to be exact). And one thing I learned pretty early on is that different areas of the country seem to have different âold favoritesâ that they play. While I wasnât surprised by a difference between Virginia and New Mexico, I was surprised to discover that even between Colorado and New Mexico folks, the âcommonâ repertoire differs.

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I was reminded of this today by Theresa Gebauerâs lovely, descriptive post about the different tunes played at jams at Evart. (Theresa, I wish youâd named some of those tunes âwe all learn but â hardly ever play now.â)

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So I was wonderingâ. What are the, say, 5 favorite tunes in your neck-of-the-woods? (And please be sure to identify your neck-of-the-woods along with your tunes!)

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~Heli

(Ms.) Heli L. Roosild

Albuquerque NM

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