This is an old tune, going back at least to the 1880s in America. What does cotton-eyed mean? One story is that bad moonshine cause a drinker’s eyes to turn milky white. Another story says someone is cotton-eyed if his eyes turned milky from any… Read More
Earworm alert…. I’ve had the old Irish tune, Arthur McBride going through my little brain. You need it too. Here’s Paul Brady.
Mississippi Sawyer is an old fiddle tune that has been around since the mid-19th Century, but I don’t know much about its origins. I’ve only heard it as an instrumental and I don’t know if there are any lyrics kicking around for this one. I… Read More
It’s about time I posted some Quebec accordion music around this joint…
I’m learning this tune on banjo now, so I’ve been listening to various performances of it….let’s start with Heat Box And Dan Levenson… Here’s Mark Gilston playing it on mountain dulcimer… Finally, Mr. Nonouke with a uke version
I can remember as a little kid watching Harry Hibbs’ At the Caribou show on channel 11. That must have been my first exposure to button accordion. Here’s a sample I found on the YouTube – Harbour Grace and Golden Slipper.
What’s your favourite band name? My current favourite is a band from the 1920s – Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers. Here they go….
I thought it was a Newfoundland tune…. I’ve known the tune We’ll rant and we’ll roar for some time, and when I was playing a lot of button accordion, I played this one quite a bit. It’s been repopularized by Great Big Sea. I just… Read More
Of all the tunes in the Old Time songbook, Hell Amongst the Yearlings has to have the best title. I hadn’t known it as an Old Time tune until recently. It is also the name of a Gillian Welch album, her second from 1998. The… Read More
Every now and again, I remember that I used to listen to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll and some of it was fantastically good. Let me just get it out of my system. There, I’m OK now. Pass the banjo over here…
27th Street 