Slip reels

I’ve been playing a few tunes recently that I think are best described as "slip reels", since they’re a bit different to 3/2 hornpipes. These tunes are to reels what slip jigs are to jigs, and they’re tremendous fun! I have 3 so far, and was wondering if anyone knew of any more.

The Twisted Bridge http://www.thesession.org/tunes/5151
La Grande Gigue Simple http://www.thesession.org/tunes/7194
The Flaming Drones http://www.thesession.org/tunes/7201

I’m sure they’re tremendous fun when you’ve never heard them before and are trying to back them on a sunday afternoon after trying to kill your hangover with more pints right dow? :P

In all seriousness though. Crankin’ tunes!

Dow, mate, that twisted bridge is REALLY bad. no, no, it’s REALLY, REALLY bad. awful. not even a tune, more like an exercise. Other tunes are alright though…

The Twisted Bridge probably wouldn’t be much fun in the non-harmony Irish music world. But with harmonies and counter melodies it can start out as fairly innocuous and build up to a raging monster. Wow, SirNose, that’s REALLY BAAAD.
I heard a fantastic rendition at the Sunday concert of the Coldstream Border Gaitherin last year (or was it two years ago, or three?).

Hey Sirnose, enlighten me, how does a 3/2 hornpipe go in dum de dum de dum dum dum language?
Haven’t noticed you on the board lately Thought you must have been sleeping.

SirNose - that tune is raw energy. No need for all the fancy twiddles and turns of your Scott-Skinners and Charlie Lennons. It says what it means and it means what it says. Perhaps it reminds you too much of yourself.

You may think it’s bad, SirNose, but then you like the Up Downey Reel, so I’ll be taking your judgement with a very large handful of salt ;-)

hey dow, I like the Up Downey Reel too! had some awesome tunes in melbourne this weekend with Nic, Rinn, Ado, Crust, Kate and all the crew at Dan O’Connells, thanks guys you rock!!(sorry to miss you though Sir Nose, maybe the 25th May ay??) :)
annnnnnyway dow, are you coming to goulburn, its going to be awesome!!!??

Not if you’re gonna play the Up Downey!

oh come on Dow!!!! i ll play the Twisted Bridge if you play the Up Downey!!! :)

Or we could play safe and stick to something good like Paddy Fahy tunes or whatever…

I just googled "slip reel" and found this set of new compositions http://www.cranfordpub.com/tunes/psc/slip_reel.htm.

A grumpy accordian player at Girvan was heard to say

"Whatever happened to melody? Everybody just wants to play morse code these days!" :-)

I also found this http://www.thesession.org/tunes/5050,, but I think it’s more like a normal 3/2 than a slip reel, so more marchy than reely.

Awesome!… will have a go at the tune, sounded alright humming it!!

Looks like that one in C I just gave the dots for has been recorded on track 10 of Anna Massie’s "Glad Company". You can hear a clip of it here http://www.tradtunes.com/album_details.php?album_id=2684.

Is "Flaming Drones" by Nancy Kerr? I’d always assumed she wrote it as an "accompaniment" to play whilst she sings Dance to your daddy, (a 3:2)
Googling "Flaming drones" whilst excluding Kerr and Daddy loses all references to the tune.

All that info is in the comments section of the tune.

PS there’s no doubt as to the validity of the info. I got it from the liner notes of her CD.

Doh!
Thanks
Tom

I know there’s one on the First Lunasa album, I accidentally went into it at a house session one time and confused the guitarist with it: http://thesession.org/tunes/2081

There’s also one on LAU’s album, I’m fairly sure.

There’s a good example of one of these "slip reels" on the album "Roughshod" by Horseplay, a band based around Durham (UK). It’s Cas’s Trip To Durham, composed by their piper Paul Martin, and it’s fairly similar to The Twisted Bridge though neither is a copy/variation of the other. As an up-front driving tune on the Border Pipes it is excellent.

As it says in the comments section "The Twisted Bridge" is a bad translation. The tune should actually be translated as "The Famous Bridge". I believe it was written in the 50s (but that date could be wrong).

The Unusual Suspects include it on their CD (on track 6) and label the tune as traditional. It is not traditional though - I remember being told the name of the composer once.

It is a great tune though.

http://www.unusualsuspects.uk.com/listen.html

You can hear a clip of the tune here.

Hey Dow,

I am not really sure of how you define slip reels, but how about la grondeuse as recorded by La bottine souriante on their album cordial. I believe this version is also in the book Dance ce soir. Would this be a slip reel?

La grondeuse = The grumbling woman

I learnt "The twisted bridge" from Jennifer Wrigley a couple of years ago- she said it was a pipe march.

What would Jennifer Wrigley know? :-D

It is quite marchy. I have always heard it described as a 6/4 reel.

But will folk please stop calling it the Twisted Bridge!

Slip Reel… And I still have no clue what a mazurka is supposed to be…. I need to introduce this to my band now…