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Good Humour For The Rest Of The Night

By Various Artists

  1. The Soldier’s Joy
  2. The Ribbon Country Dance
  3. We All Go A-Hunting Today
  4. Ned’s Father’s
  5. The Ladies’
  6. Barbara Bell
  7. The Coquet
  8. The Lads Of North Tyne
  9. The Mosstroopers
  10. The Wild Hills Of Wannies
  11. My Love She’s But A Lassie Yet
  12. The Clinch
  13. The Clinch
  14. George Foreman’s
  15. The Sylph
  16. Highland Laddie
  17. The Keel Row
  18. Duncan Gray
  19. Proudlock’s
  20. Patrick Conroy’s March
  21. Patrick Conroy’s Waltz No. 1
  22. Patrick Conroy’s Waltz No. 2
  23. The Rollicking Irishman
  24. Corn Riggs
  25. Jake Hutton’s
  26. Durham Rangers
    The Rights Of Man
  27. Good Humour
  28. The Time For Step-dancing
  29. Russian Ballet
  30. Nancy
  31. Drops Of Brandy
  32. The Maltese Schottische
  33. Roxburgh Castle
  34. The Lancers, Figure 1
  35. The Lancers, Figure 2
  36. The Lancers, Figure 3
  37. The Lancers, Figure 4
  38. The Lancers, Figure 5
  39. The Last Figure Of The Lancers
  40. The West End
  41. Corn Rigs
  42. The Garden House
  43. Louden’s Bonny Woods And Braes
  44. The Gilsland
  45. Peter Robson’s
  46. The Roman Wall
  47. Billy’s Father’s
  48. The Whinshields
  49. Whinham’s
  50. The Triumph
  51. Corn Rigs
  52. The Ribbon Dance
  53. Cock Your Leg Up
  54. The Self
  55. The Circassian Circle – First Figure
  56. The Circassian Circle – Second Figure
  57. Roxburgh Castle
  58. Caddam Woods
  59. Jack Heron’s
  60. The Circassian Circle

Five comments

Yes, lots! I had to rush out, more to follow…as per usual. 😉 I was also waiting the opening for this to be able to be submitted on one page with ‘60’ tracks…

“Good Humour For The Rest Of The Night” Topic - TSCD675

Voice of the People, 3rd Series, A selection of Traditional dance music in Northumberland and Cumberland
http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/good-humour-for-the-rest-of-the-night-tscd675/

Field recordings made by Peter Kennedy in 1954
Selected and presented, with extensive notes, by Reg Hall

Voice of the People ~ 20+ Volumes compiled & with notes by Dr. Reg Hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_of_the_People

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The tracks: the musicians - & their instruments:

1 - 6: Ned Pearson - fiddle

7 - 10; 27 - 29; 34 - 39; & 47 - 49: Billy Ballantine - piccolo

11 & 13: Bob Clark - Jew’s harp

12 & 13: George Taylor - melodeon

14 - 19; & 30 - 33: George Armstrong - fiddle

20 - 23: Billy Conroy - tin whistle

24 & 25: Jake Hutton - fiddle

26: Tom Hunter - fiddle

40 - 43 : Jim Rutherford - fiddle

44: Willy Taylor - melodeon

45: Willy Taylor - fiddle

46: Adam Gray - fiddle, track

50 - 56: George Taylor - fiddle

57 - 60: Jimmy Hunter - harmonica

“Good Humoured For The Night”

And I still have to find some time to chase up and seek connections for those odd ‘gan ainms’ in this mix… 😀

As to pleasures, yes and yes again, some of my favourite folk are on this recording, such as Ned Pearson and Willy Taylor, and Willy on melodeon too. Brilliant!

"Good Humour For The Rest Of The Night:

: Traditional Dance Music in Northumberland and Cumberland"

The subtitle, but most of the tracks here feature musicians from Northumberland. Only 3, tracks 24, 25, & 26, feature fiddlers from Cumberland, Bewcastle, Jake & Tom Hunter.

The booklet that comes with this collection is valued, but there are no useful notes on the tunes themselves. Instead it features short bios on the musicians, which I’m glad of. It may answer some of the mysteries of my curious relationship and interactions with dear Peter Kennedy. I was on him to organize his notes and offering to help. He wouldn’t be the first, and I’ve had my failures there too, to have not been quite as thorough in collecting information not just on the contributing musicians, but on the music too, and the relative dance traditions, and the whole context of this. Some of Peter’s recordings also included chat, and that sometimes about the tunes and the dance, and the setting, but this collection has been edited to just be the melodies being played.

Such an effort, and bless Mr. Hall for making these available, but I so wish there had been time given over to finding and providing information on the tunes too, rather than just a list of tracks, many of which are given at no better than ‘gan ainm’. Having contributed this here I’ll see if I can at least make some connections between tunes listed and transcription here, having just done that for “The Maltese Schottische”, yet another name for that old “7-Step” I’d found in memory in pretty much every county of Ireland ~ and beyond, including North America, Mexico, Europe, Australasia, etc…

For those who enjoy things beautifully raw, I can recommend these roots listens as part of a balanced diet.