What we know about The Tunes:

Some text about how this type of music is handed down from generation to generation via ear etc.

1. Churning Butter

2. The Bee’s Wing

This hornpipe was composed by James Hill (1811-1853) in honor of the racehorse Beeswing, known as the greatest mare of the age. According to Grampy, the tune was often used for elimination rounds in fiddle contests.

3. The Mouth of the Tobique

This tune, widely known as “Growling Old Man, Grumbling Old Woman,” was composed by Francis Sowish, a music student of Grampy’s aunt and friend of his father’s. The name refers to the confluence of the Tobique and Saint John’s rivers in New Brunswick, where Sowish, whom Grampy remembered as Micmac and/or Maliseet, lived.

4. The Diving Six

Grampy said that “The Diving Six” was the name of this tune and also of a dance that was commonly set to it.

5. Mother’s Reel

This tune, popular across Canada and the U.S, is a special one to us as this album is in honor of our mom, Judy Langen, on her 80th birthday.

6. Earl Mitton’s Breakdown

Once Grampy picked up the fiddle after a long hiatus, he started to perform with a number of talented and welcoming musicians in southern Arizona, including Tom Jennings (mandolin), Martha Jennings (guitar), Sharon Jennings (guitar), Big Jim Griffith (banjo), and Dave Luckow (guitar), as well as his younger son Terry Langen (bass). This tune was the “theme song” for any configuration of that group.

7. The Pedestal

“Pedestal” is a type of clog dance performed on a raised surface. This unusual pedestal clog, which doesn’t seem to have any other name, can be found in Harding’s All-Round Collection of Jigs, Reels and Country Dances (1905).

8. French Mary

According to Grampy, Don Messer mistakenly used the title “The Mouth of the Tobique” (see above) for this tune. Nowadays it’s widely known by that name.

9. The Logger’s Reel

This is a peculiar tune with several different versions of the first part, and several different tunes sharing the same second part (e.g. “German Schottische (3): Bohemian Melodies,” as recorded by Scott Skinner, and also St. Joe’s Hornpipe).

10. The Marchioness of Huntly, The Miller of Drone, Sandy Duff

Grampy rarely strung tunes together, but this medley of Scottish tunes, two strathspeys and a reel, was an exception. The reel is popular among Irish musicians as well, under the name “The High Reel” and with a slightly different ending to both parts.

11. The Rochester Schottische

One of at least three tunes sharing the same name, this one is widely played in Canada. As with many types of tunes, the schottische developed differently in different local traditions. This one might strike contemporary ears as similar to a barn dance.

12. Wooten’s Quadrille

Art Wooten, born in Allegheny County, North Carolina, was the fiddler in an early lineup of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. Grampy played an unusual version of this tune, including an extra measure in the second part.

13. The Leitrim Thrush

Grampy played Irish tunes, like this one, with a distinctive swing and phrasing but with ornamentation different from modern Irish fiddle playing.

14. Lily Galoo

This tune seems to be a bit of a mystery, at least to us. We haven’t found anyone with information about it, nor have we been able to track it down in printed or recorded form.

15. Cotton Eyed Phil

Grampy’s version of the Canadian version of “Cotton Eyed Joe.” For years, Grampy remembered this tune as “Phiddlin’ Phil,” probably because those two tunes appear on facing pages in Don Messer’s Original Old Tyme Music. Amused at the error once he recognized it, he decided on this mashup title.

16. The Quebec Waltz

We’ve been unable to find sources for this tune, which The Boys of the Lough recorded (as “Canadian Waltz”) on their album Good Friends, Good Music, with Louis Beaudoin on fiddle and Willie Beaudoin on guitar.

17. The Snowshoer’s Reel

Known in the Quebecois tradition as “Reel de la tuque bleue” and recorded in 1930 by Joseph Allard, this tune appears as “The Blue Garters” in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903).

18. The High Level

Grampy held this tune, another James Hill composition, in high regard as a test of a fiddler’s bowing and intonation.

19. Balkan Hills

Grampy played this schottische in G rather than the more common D. It can be found in Don Messer’s Way Down East Fiddlin Tunes, first published in 1948.

20. The Woodchopper’s Reel

Probably the best-known of all the tunes we play here, this reel is a favorite among both Canadian and American old-time fiddle players.

21. The Rippling Water Jig

Grampy never played a tune the exact same way twice, but on this jig, one of his favorites, he always liked to use these first-part variations. We never asked him if they were meant to evoke the image of the tune’s title, but the impression is hard to escape.