Sam Cormier’s reel

Transcribed from the playing of Brid Harper.

Brought to mind Track 1 tune 3 Fiddlers Choice by Jerry Holland (Denis Lanctot’s reel).Is there a connection??

Thanks! It was on Sean Smyth’s album as “Langtou”, but when I googled the surname all I got was references to the album and no homepage or anything. You have the correct spelling. I’ve updated the tune info.

Thanks for that,and not wishing to confuse the issue but the tune I refered to is a tribute to Lanctot (CD insert) and different to the one posted, but both great tunes.

It’s the same guy, that’s for sure.

This tune is called “Reel Sam Cormier” and was originally written in E major by Denis Lanctot of Ottawa. As far as I know, it was first recorded on February 2, 1983 for his album “Papineauville Quebec” and has been subsequently recorded by Ontario fiddlers Shane Cook (“Sundry”) and Pierre Schryer (“Acoustique!”) among others. I’ve heard it most often from local fiddlers who have at one time or another sat at Denis’ knee, most notably Matt Pepin, Terri-Lynn Mahusky and the late Danny O’Connell.

It’s my guess that Brid Harper inadvertently popularized Sam Cormier’s by including it along with this reel (https://thesession.org/tunes/2556) during a concert that appears to have been widely distributed on an unofficial basis (can you say bootleg?) She introduces the tunes by first apologizing for not knowing the names, then crediting Denis as the source.

We here in Ottawa suspect that Brid picked them up from Denis sometime in the mid-eighties when she formed part of the North American Comhaltas tours that passed through here. I’m still on a quest to find the proper name for the reel in C that every Irish style fiddler knows as Brid Harper’s. Stay tuned.

Wow, great info!

Another bit of trivia is that Denis told me he wrote Sam Cormier’s when he was 17.

Thanks Ian for getting in all those facts…..and every one is correct right down to every dotted i and crossed t.
The only published copy of this music (in the actual written key of E major) is in “Canadian Fiddle Music - Volume 1” compiled by Dr. Ed Whitcomb. I believe the book is now distributed through Melbay.
It was written for a very good friend from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
If you get a chance check out my new website at http://www.denislanctot.com
Denis L.

Denis wrote to me asking me to change the key to E and add other stuff in the headers, which unfortunately I can’t now I’ve gone and submitted it in D! 🙂 and also to say that Denis was the first ever to record the tune in 1987 on his debut album entilted “Denis Lanctot - Papineauville, Quebec”.
You can view his recordings on his new website at :
http://www.denislanctot.com

Sorry Denis that’s the best I can do, short of resubmitting it, but I haven’t got your original ABCs…

So now you can choose which of the 2 identical links you want to use ’,🙂

Thanks to TheSession.org I learned about the background and proper title of this fabulous tune. Here is the Tommy Peoples’ version, that I got from Belgian fiddle player Rudy Velghe (ORION) - it was called “Dinny Laington’s” there, a nice misconception of Denis’ name….

X:1
T:Reel Sam Cormier
C:© Denis Lanct\’ot
S:manuscript of Rudy Velghe/from Tommy Peoples
R:reel
Z:Transcription Johannes Schiefner (jschiefner@gmx.net)
Z:id:js_1042
M:C|
K:D
D2 A,D B,D A,B,|DFAF GFEF|DF ~F2 Agfe|dBBA BAFE|
D2 A,D B,D A,B,|DFAF GFEF|DFBF AF ~F2|1EDCE D .G/.F/E:|2EDCE D2 .g/.f/e||
fdAG FAdf|eA ~A2 eAeg|fedB BAFA|.B/.c/d AF FEEg|
fdAG FAdf|eA ~A2 eAef|gfec dedB|1ABde fddg:|2ABde fdAF|]