Miss Sarah McFadyen jig

I heard this tune, by Jennifer Wright, on a recording by an Ottawa ceili band called the Old Sod Band, which features (among others) Dan Schreyer and Ian Bell. (Ian plays guitar with Pierre Schreyer, and Dan was, with Pierre, one of the Schreyer triplets.) The Old Sod Band plays it with lots of swing, and minor chords substituted for their relative majors in the B section, rather like this:

F#m | C#m | Bm | E E+F | F#m | C#m | D | E A |

Enjoy!

---Michael B.

Hi Michael

Yep, it’s a great tune. But it’s written by Jennifer WRIGLEY, not Wright. And she’s a fellow Orcadian.

Cheers,
Kenny.

Jennifer Wrigley is a fantastic fiddler from Orkney, who once won the BBC Young Tradition Award. I got a copy of the sheet music of this lovely jig from a tunebook for the Scottish fiddle, but it is a very whistle-unfriendly tune like many of Jennifer’s compositions.

You will hear it played by the composer herself in the sisters’ “Watch Stone” album. She plays another great jig after it.

Some other compositions of Jennifer are on this site:
https://thesession.org/tunes/805
https://thesession.org/tunes/2077

Miss Sarah McFadyen was a pupil of Jennifer’s and is now an excellent fiddler in her own right. She is very active on the Edinburgh scene and plays with the band Harem Scarem amongst other projects. Check out their website
http://www.haremscarem.co.uk/

John

My brain said Wrigley, but my fingers said Wright. And Wrongly. Wrigley it is. Apologies to all.

---Michael B.

I just saw and heard Miss Sarah McFadyen herself at Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend and she is indeed a very fine fiddler, with a lovely mellow touch on the fiddle.

I made the notes match the Tannahill Weavers’ take of this,
and also put it in G for easier playing, at least for schmucks like me… 🙂

This is the version played (by the composer) on The Watch Stone. Beautiful playing btw, and a great tune too.