Herb Reid’s polka

A great polka from Paddy Keenan’s album Na Keen Affair. Easy to learn and sounds good fast or slow! On his album he pairs it with She Said She Couldn’t Dance….

Herb Reid’s / She Said She Couldn’t Dance / Shootin’ the Bull

Three dance tunes, native of Newfoundland. Although singles are more usually associated with the fiddle than pipes, Paddy shows how well they can be rendered on the chanter."

I’ll have to dig through my collection — when I tried to play the ABCs, I heard different notes in my head at the ends of phrases, if you know what I mean. May be that Paddy’s got a different version than is commonly played in Newfoundland or something.

The following is a lot closer to how older Newfoundland accordion player Baxter Wareham has it:

|:Af fe|dc BA|Be Bc|dc BA|
Af fe|dc BA|Be Bc|d2 d2:|
|:DF AF|EF GB|AB cd|ed ef|
DF AF|EF GB|AB cA|d2 d2:|

K: D Major
|: df f>e | d/e/d/c/ c/B/A | Be ed | cB c/B/A |
df- fe | d>c BA | B/c/e Bc | d2 D2 :|
|: D>F AF | EF GB | AA/B/ cd | e/f/e/d/ c/B/A |
DF/G/ AF | E>F GB | A>B ce | d2 D2 :||

X: 1
T: Herb Reids
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Dmaj
|:DF/G/ AF|EF GB|AB cd|ed cA|
DF/G/ AF|EF GB|AB ce|d2 d2:|
|:df fe|dc BA|Be Bc|dc BA|
df fe|dc BA|Be Bc|d2 d2:|