Red Shoes reel

Composed by Dan R MacDonald - this arrangement is in Barry Shears‘ Cape Breton Collection of Bagpipe Music where Barry notes “One of Dan R’s most popular fiddle tunes, it was recorded by both Little Jack MacDonald and Winston Fitzgerald on early 78s and was first published in MacQuarrie’s ’The Cape Breton Collection’ (1940).” Barry performs a cracking rendition of the tune on his CD “Cape Breton Piper.” I also found on Cranfordpub.com that Red Shoes is included on the CD “Natalie and Buddy MacMaster Traditional Music from Cape Breton Island” and also on the CD “Jennifer Roland - For Each New Day”

As I have seen many debates on thesession.org as to whether a tune is truly A mix, so before proclaiming it so, I researched on the Fiddler’s Companion and found the tune listed as “Canadian, Reel. Canada; Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton. A Mixolydian. ” Should you disagree, kindly don’t take it out on me ;)

Also of note -- I found these comments on the web site www.redshoepub.com/history.htm:
As quoted from ‘The Cape Breton Fiddler’ by Allister MacGillivary
“’The very first tune I composed - it’s in Gordon MacQuarries book - was ‘The Red Shoes’,” said Dan Rory.
That particular piece was named for some homemade footgear crafted by Angus D. MacEachern of Glendale, Cape Breton. The adventurous shoemaker had stained the shoes a bright crimson with Sherwin-Williams paint, And the incident was the inspiration for Dan R’s reel." And so the pub was named Red Shoe Pub in honor of Dan R MacDonald!

The setting that I have provided is the one most Cape Breton fiddlers play. Some play the A part in Ador instead of Amix, but I’ve heard it more often the one I have shown.