Friday, March 20, 2009

'Paddy on the Handcar'

Very nice A modal (Dorian) fiddle tune


YouTube has a clip by an intergenerational fiddlers' club in New England called the Pioneer Valley Fiddlers playing it in a medley with "Red Haired Boy" ("Paddy on the Handcar" starts at 1:22). It's also a fife tune, and another clip shows the Whitehall Guard Fife & Drum Corps playing it in a Labor Day parade in Bethlehem, Pa.

Fiddlers Companion (click here for index) has this:
PADDY ON THE HANDCAR. See "Paddy on the Turnpike" [1], "Paddy on the Turnpike" [2]. Old‑Time, Breakdown. A Dorian. Standard tuning. AB (Silberberg): AABB (Phillips, Sweet). USA; Texas, N.C. Richard Nevins believes that the fiddler for the Texas group the Red Headed Fiddlers (who recorded this tune in the 1930), A.L. Steely, has a style "strikingly similar" to Leonard Rutherford. Sources for notated versions: Stuart Williams & Wes Brown [Phillips]; Stuart Williams (Seattle) [Silberberg]. Kuntz, Private Collection. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 178. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 114. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 81. County 527, The Red Headed Fiddlers ‑ "Old Time Fiddle Classics, Vol. 2." Document DOCD-8038, Red Headed Fiddlers – “Texas Fiddle Bands Vol. 1.” June Appal 007, Tommy Hunter ‑ "Deep In Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, fiddler James W. Hunter, Madison County, N.C.). Marimac 9038, Dan Gellert & Brad Leftwich - "A Moment in Time."
X:1
T:Paddy on the Handcar
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:Breakdown
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:A Dorian

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