Naanie An’ Betty reel

A simple Shetland tune which is one of my favorites from “The Silver Bow” by Tom Anderson and Aly Bain. Can’t say much else, as I don’t know a lot about it, but I like the fairly low, sparse first part and the modulation to A dorian in the second part.

The tune is from the island of Whalsay in Shetland, and is said to be a very old reel. Tom Anderson learned it from a John Irvine* and said, “Naanie and Betty were apparently two very good dancers…” (Ringing Strings, Tom Anderson, 1983).

* = In the book Ringing Strings, there is a photograph of John Irvine holding his fiddle, taken in 1954.