Magic Foot barndance

Here’s a tune that showed up on Mary Staunton’s CD, "Bright Early Mornings" that was written by American mandolin player, Russ Barnberg. Mary calls it a barndance and it sounds like she plays it in the key of A on an Eflat box. A query for this tune showed up on IRTRAD with only the first two parts and this prompted me to finish it in the key they started it in — Gmajor. It’s a cute tune with a pinch of Cajun affectations thrown in on the third part.

Jack
Is this the same Russ who played on a great CD with a guitarist/slide and bass player. Not trad but absolutely mind-blowing musicianship - my memory has deserted me and I can’t remember the name of the other guys or the name of the album, which I have lost.
Maybe you can fill in those gaps.
Cheers

Good man, Jack. I requested this tune a while back. I’m sure the composer’s original key was A, but G suits the flute better. Nevertheless, I’m included to transpose it back to A for the sake of "authenticity". Do you play it in A on the flute yourself? Thanks very much.

This is on Barenberg’s 1988 recording, "Moving Pictures". Other Artists include, Bela Fleck, Mark O’Connor, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas etc. While not Irish Traditional … it is and amazing CD.

I’ve only been playing it today and G seems nice on the flute. You still have to fold the bottom note in the Key of A, so it’s not really worth it to play in A. I’m going to give it a go in on my concertina in that key though.

Thanks very much Jeremy for editing my copy when I made that boo-boo at the top, but I think you might have left something out about this tune in the process. : ¬ \

Uh… helloooooooo 🙂

Read comments above please.

Maybe I should email Jeremy

Jack. Nobody cares about you! Get used to it? You’re an anglo player? Nobody’s listening to you, least of all I. Just stop your whinging, your angloid neneneneneneeEEEHH. "Excuse me, but, I am, like, *so* an American citizen, and I, like, totally, like, *demand* my sheetmusic 😀

Oh by the way, I just read that, imagining that I had absolutely no sense of irony whatsoever, and decided that it sounded quite rude and out of order. So:

I apologise sincerely to all of you out there for any offence caused. I assure you I did not mean to diss Jack. I do not want to seem as though I’m like some sort of, like, cheeky upstart or whatever (jeez perish the thought), and I know some of you reading right now will be really irritated at what I wrote to Jack, but even more so at what I’m writing now… mwaahahaha. And for that I apologise. Man, just write to Jeremy direct and have me kicked off please, you’d be doing me a favour too. I spend far too much time on the yella anyway.

Dow… you cheeky upstart.

Where’s the proper music????
I only got the kiddys form, alphabety-spaggetti.
Is something wrong with this server too???

That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering. Finally someone besides Dow notices. It begs the question: If a tune falls in a forest…

Try threatening legal action, Jack, that’ll work.

Good idea, Dow… my lawyer will be in touch with your one.

Is this about the time when I spilt Guinness on your concertina? It wasn’t my fault, it was the bar’s fault for serving me. It was the fault of the company who made the pint glasses which had no sticky-out lip to stop it from slipping out of my hand. It was your fault for asking me to buy the drink in the first place. In fact it was your fault for bringing your expensive personal items to a public drinking establishment. It was Guinness’s fault for brewing a product that is wet and black, and therefore able to cause permanent damage to musical instruments. But most of all it was your fault for taking up the monkeybox in the first place - you were asking for trouble. I think I have a good case - bring it on!

Dow, if you were living here in the states you’d make one helluva Republican. hahaha… DOW for BUSH!

Maybe it’s the error in the ABC? I cut and pasted into BarFly, and it complained about the illegal construction :|| at the end of the tune. Try removing the second vertical bar and maybe it’ll get converted.

Dow for Bush? Yeah right. The only bush I’d go for is one that I can smoke.

…and the joke needs to stop right there, with that kind of bush. My parents might read this 🙂

I tried your idea Gary, but it hasn’t had any effect yet… maybe Jeremy doesn’t like me?

Maybe it’s because this isn’t really an Irish tune?

There’s no as many Irish tunes being posted on this site these days, Jack. Are we running out of "shteem"? Since it was me who originally requested this a while ago, could I enter a plea for the sheet music to be posted, please? I could get it from the abcs, but that’s more of a hassle.

The word "magic" might be making it invisible.

Thanks Jeremy… ok, now… let’s all play the tune in the key of A.

Sharon Shannon has also recorded this, on her 1999 release: Spellbound: The Best Of Sharon Shannon

Also, I believe she plays both the accordion and the fiddle, on the track 🙂

X: 2 and X: 3 are transcriptions of Russ Barenberg playing this tune on mandolin, taken from his CD Moving Pictures. Original key is A.

X: 4 is as played by Matheu Watson on 06May2013 at the adult feis in Ullapool. This is just one take of several.
Played with swing and impeccable timing.

I first saw this on a YouTube of Transatlantic Sessions. Aly Bain, Sharon Shannon, composer Russ Barenberg, Jerry Douglas, etc. It’s a very addicting tune, and not an easy one!

On fiddle, this tune works well by playing through a couple times in G, then modulating to A. It gives it quite a kick. The A version is good motivation for learning 3rd position!

Here is Magic Foot played by Three Times Through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EtcUMCFDBg

play video