I first heard this tune as the Priazhan Katrilli on the first Arto Järvelä album I ever heard, some 20 years ago. It’s a great European square dance tune. Here is the recording, by Pinnan Pojat. It can be found in the Old Town School Tune Archive.

Austrian fiddler Rudi Pietsch, another guest featured by the Fiddle Club of the World, also played the tune. What follows are recordings from Swedish, Finnish and Estonian musicians.

Finnjorka, a 1917 recording by Swedish-American artists Hugo Johnson & Fritz Aase

Frank Hietala with folklorist Elli Köngäs Maranda (click to enlarge)

Indrek Kalda & Tiit Kikus (click to enlarge)

Vinkerska, a 1960 recording by Frank Hietala, a Finnish immigrant living in Virginia, Minnesota

Vengerick, a circa 2000 recording by Indrek Kalda & Tiit Kikas, Estonian fiddlers from Viljandi, Eesti

X:6
T:Vengerik
M:C
L:1/8
S:Finland & Estonia
O:Indrek Kalda & Tiit Kikas
K:G
GFGA BABc | d^cde d4 | g2B2 B>dcB | BAA^G A4 |
D^CDE FEFG | A^GAB cedc | BdG2 AcF2 | AGGF G4 ::
g3f e3^d| e^de^d e4 | a3g f3e | decd B4 |
D^CDE FEFG | A^GAB cedc | BdG2 AcF2 | AGGF G4 :|

NB: Arto Järvela with Kaivama will be featured guests at a Fiddle Club of the World meeting on Saturday, March 3 in room E324 in Old Town School East (4545 Lincoln).

From the Rhythm Rats 1994 cassette on Marimac Recordings. It has been reissued on CD by 5-String Productions (click for the catalog). The band featured fiddler Kenny Jackson with Whitt Mead on banjo and Paula Bradley on guitar. Sometime in the 1980s, Kenny Jackson and Brad Leftwich learned this tune on a visit with Ed Sutherland, a Missouri fiddler. Kenny’s fiddle on this recording has the G string run up to an A (ADAE).

Note: this is not the more famous Indian War Whoop recorded by Hoyt Ming & his Pep Steppers circa 1930 and reprised by David Holt in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Indian War Whoop

X:1
T:Indian War Whoop
M:C|
L:1/8
S:Ed Sutherland, from Missouri, via Kenny Jackson
K:D
de | fafe d2cd | efed BABc | dBAG F2FD | A,2CA, D2 ::
FG | ABAG FDEF | GB2G E2FG | ABAG F2FD | A,B,CA, D2 :|

(click to enlarge)

The album due to be reissued on CD by Ubik Sound. Until then, a CD is available from the webite for Bayou Seco, Ken and Jeanie’s band. There you will find this biographical sketch of Señor Ortiz, and more.

“Cleofes Ortiz was born in 1910 on Pajarito Plateau near Rowe, New Mexico. When he was eight years old, he made his first fiddle from a lard bucket, with screen wire strings. He learned most of his tunes from his cousin, Emiliano Ortiz, a well known fiddler who taught him both the local dance traditions and tunes he had picked up in lumber camps throughout New Mexico and Colorado. When he was 14, Cleofes began to play for local bailes and continued until his marriage, and a growing family of nine demanded all of his time. Around 1975, He resumed his violin playing, performing at weddings, funciones (feast days), festivals and senior centers in his area.”

Valse de los Paños is a waltz danced with handkerchiefs. A description of the dance from the early 1900s can be found in a book by Aurora Lucero-White, Folk-dances of the Spanish-colonials of New Mexico.

Valse de los Paños

Here are the Abcs. Not the key change to D for the B part . . .
X:4
T:Valse de Los Paños
M:3/4
S:Cleofes Ortiz
L:1/8
K:G
Bd | g3g fe | d2BG Bd | c2AF Ac | B2G2 Bd |
g3g fe | d2BG Bd | c2A2 F2 | G4 ::
K:D
z2 | ABAF Ad | f2f2 Ac | e2e2 Ac| d2c2 B2 |
ABAF Ad | f2f2 Ac | e2eA ce | d4 :|

Sixteen years later, I met Mr. Corrigan at another fiddle camp across the continent in Port Townsend, Washington. He and fellow fiddler, Eddie Whalen, had traveled from Quebec to lead workshops at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes sponsored by the Centrum. So here’s their version of the tune of the week. Isn’t that just the coolest name for a tune? I wish I knew the story behind the name.

Sheepskin and Beeswax by Eric Corrigan & Eddie Whalen

X:3
T:Sheepskin and Beeswax
M:C|
L:1/8
S:Eric Corrigan of Stoneham, Quebec
K:ADor
EAAA BGGB | AGBd geef | gefd eged | Bded B2A2 ::
a4 a2ga | baga edef | gefd eged | Bded B2A2 :|

The whole medley played by Mr. Corrigan and Mr. Whalen can be found on my Dr.Dosido.net website. The page also contains a link to Lisa Ornstein’s performance of the tune, recorded in 1982.

Eagerly anticipated. Much hard work to keep the promise. And so it was written: so “Come join us on Sunday, January 15 at 6:30 for a Housewarming Dance for the new Lincoln Square East building of the Old Town School of Folk Music (4545 Lincoln). We’ll occupy one of the fabulous new dance studios. All dancers, players and callers are welcome to help warm up the floor.” so so	Dance tonight in E326! (click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)	(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)	(click to enlarge)
January 15, 2012 so 80 folks came to play or dance or both. Thanks to our 4 great callers: Paul Collins, Lynn Garren, Tom Senior and Bill Sudkamp. 30 musicians played-never more than 20 at a time-including 1 banjo, 1 accordion, 3 mandolins and the rest evenly divided between fiddles and guitars. so so	(click to enlarge)
Here’s our set list, as best I remember: (D tunes) Angeline the Baker Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss Soldier’s Joy Walk Old Shoe Heel Come a-Draggin’ Twin Sisters(G Tunes) Indian Corn	Sail Away Ladies Roscoe (A Tunes) Tippin’ Back the Corn Liza Jane Little Dutch Girl (final waltz in D) Tennessee Waltz

so
Photos by Gail Tyler, except the first and the last, which were taken by . . .
Paul Tyler, convener

This CD was put together in honor of Gunner Friis‘ 60th birthday in 2005. He is a highly-respected dance fiddle in Denmark. This wedding march, 1 of 2 in a medley, was learned from Jens Frederiksen, who I assume was a fiddler from the previous generation.

Brudemarch fra Himmerland 1

Gunner Friis on fiddle with Ben Melvij Nielsen on harmonika, a variety of pump organ.

The Abcs are below. A simple tutorial on Abc is can be downloaded here.

Paul Tyler, convener

X:2
T:Brudemarch fra Himmerland 1
S:Gunner Friis efter Jens Frederiksen
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:G
D | GBD GBd | g2B BAB | c2A AGA | B2G G2D |
GBD GBd | g2B BAB | c2A def | g2g gag |
e2c c2e | edc B2d | dcA def | g2g gag |
e2c c2e | edc B2d | dcA def | g2g g2 ||

And my resolution is to provide you all with a rare and interesting Fiddle Club Tune-of-the-Week. Here’s the first one for week of January 2, 2012 . . .

Sleeping Giant Two-Step

By Andy De Jarlis (1914-75), a Métis fiddler from Canada’s Red River country, one of two hundred or so tunes he composed and recorded. Some people give him credit with popularizing “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” a tune that started out in the mixed Native and French communities of Western Canada. Many other Andy De Jarlis tunes can be found on YouTube.

Sleeping Giant

As played by Glenn Berry of Seabeck, Washington. I met and recorded Mr. Berry in 1998 at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington.

At the bottom of this post are the notes for “Sleeping Giant” in Abc notation, a good tool to learn and use.

And now a word from our sponsor. The new session of Old Town School classes starts next Monday (January 9). It’s important that you don’t wait until the last day to sign up. Low enrollment classes will be cancelled 3 days before the first class. My Fiddle 4 Old Time class on Mondays at noon still needs a least one student, as does my Fiddle 4 Cajun class on Tuesdays at 8pm. Other fiddle classes are on the bubble, so don’t wait only to find out the class you wanted to take was cancelled. They are listed here.

Paul Tyler, convener

X:1
T:Sleeping Giant Two-Step
S:Andy DeJarlis
M:C|
L:1/8
K:D
A2d2 | f3g f2d2 | A4 F4 | G3G G2F2 | E4 E2F2 |
G3G G2F2 | E4 D2E2 | F3G F2E2 | F2F2 A2d2 |
f3g f2d2 | A4 F4 | G3G G2F2 | E4 E2F2 |
G3G G2A2 | c2A2 B2c2 | d4 d4 |1 d4 :|2 d2d2 c2=c2 ||:
B4 d4 | g6 g2 | f3g f2d2 | A4 d4 |
e4 e3f | e2c2 B2A2 | d2A2 F2G2 | A2d2 c2=c2 |
B4 d4 | g6 g2 | f3g f2d2 | A4 G2F2 |
E3F E2F2 | G2A2 B2c2 | d4 d4 |1 d2d2 c2=c2 :|2 d4 ||

Michi Regier started out with classical violin lessons (lessons that were well-earned), but soon went off in search of Gypsy fiddling on paths that took her into the worlds of Mariachi bands and renaissance fairs. Among other gems, Michi will perform her “Fiddle Tree” travelogue in fiddle, English and Ukrainian, highlighting the musical folklore of the Ukraine, which she studied first-hand in 2003 at the Lysenko Conservatory in L’viv. She also plays with the Milwaukee based Water Street Bridge.

Peasants Abroad is the Madison, Wisconsin duo of Ashli Fain on mandolin and percussionist Richard Miller. Both will also demonstrate some dancing to the accompaniment of Michi Regier’s exotic fiddling. A few simple dances will be taught to Fiddle Clubbers, including one of my favorite, the lovely and simple Setnja from Serbia.

Ukrainian folk costumes (click to enlarge)

Michi Regier with Ivan Andreiovich (click to enlarge)

Michi’s tunes, and what she has to say about them . . .

Hutsulky

“I learned it from a Carpathian mountain fiddler (Ivan, in the picture) who refused to let me take notes!”

Arkan-Fire Dance

“I learned this tune from Oksana Moshinsky, bandura player from Ukraine. I met her when performing at the Colorado renaissance festival, and her great cooking is responsible for my weekly visits to her house to learn Ukrainian tunes.” [nb: a cd by Michi & Oksana is available here.]

Little Stream

“This one I learned from Oksana Moshinsky – it’s a traditional Ukrainian tune also.
Here’s a fairly traditional sung version. I recorded an instrumental arrangement of it on my first cd Curved Space (It is out of print but I still have download cards which I will bring to the club).”

Notation for Little Stream

To register for Michi’s visit to the Fiddle Club, show up at the Atlantic Bar on Sunday with $15 in hand (it all goes to the artist). Or join fiddle club with a year’s subscription for $60.

-Paul Tyler, convener

The story thus far. Long ago in a galaxy far away I started playing the fiddle and calling square dances, because I thought that was the most fun a group of people could have.

Al Smitley & Paul Tyler re-enacting frontier life in 1836 Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement Noblesville, Indiana – 1981 (click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Way back then, I had the glimmer of notion that the American square dance was just one type of set dance among many. Even then I knew the fiddle was the universal instrument. But over the next thirty years, I concentrated on playing for and calling American square dances, in part, because they were easy for folks to learn, and required only a walking step. No aspiring dancer had to learn to do anything special with his or her feet.

But in the meantime, in merry old England, a set dance revival was growing that attracted thousands of people young and old, and several dozen high energy dance bands to a scene called Barn Dancing. In the last ten years it’s also become known as Ceilidh dancing, borrowing a term for similar explosion of old time dancing in Scotland. The dances are for sets of 4 to 6 couples, or for lines for “as many as will,” or for circles made up of couples or groups of 3. The dances are all easy to learn and great fun to do.

And part of what makes English Ceilidhs such big fun, is that the dancers use a few special steps that bring them to a closer connection with the music. These steps are the setting step (for reels), the rant step, and the polka. We’re going to try them out at the next meeting.

Here’s some tunes. My current favorite reel is Beatrice Hill’s 3-Hand Reel. Click the title for a slow version I posted on the Old Town School’s Flog, and click this link for the notes. If you want to get inspired, listen to this live version from the Old Swan Band, the top-of-the-heap band for English ceilidh.

Another great, and easy, English reel that has been played in Old Town fiddle classes is Albert Farmer’s Bonfire Tune. And for the right feel for an English reel, take a look at this video of the Old Swan Band playing “Speed the Plough”. For the last figure each time through, the dancers do a simple polka step (and-a|1 & 2 and-a|1 & 2).

Another step from the old-time polka (also known as a schottische), is the step-hop, step
-hop (1 & 2 &|1 & 2 &). At an English Ceilidh, reels and polkas dance alike, as seen in this video of the Old Swan Band playing a couple of well-known polkas learned from Walter Bulwar of East Anglia.

Check back in a day or two for part 2 of this post. I’ll provide some sounds and video for the reel setting step and the rant step.

Paul Tyler, convener