The Absent-minded Woman reel

This was one of the first reels I learned on fiddle--not the easiest for a beginner--from Linda Danielson, a fiddler and teacher near Eugene, Oregon. Not long after learning it, I was visiting with Liz Carroll after a gig, and she handed me her fiddle and said, “Play us something then.” So off I went on this tune. Liz got all excited, saying she hadn’t heard this one in years, and oh what was the name of it? I played it three times through, her frustration over the missing name growing, till I was half afraid to tell her the name. We had a good laugh over that.

Thanks for the tune Will

To my ear the high “e” leading into the B part would sound better as a “d”. Or a d pushed up into an e on the way to the g.
Great tune and nice anecdote - now Dow is finally happy.

Sure, d would work, but on fiddle, it’s more natural to get the pick up note from the same string you’re about to land on, particularly since you’re leaping from the 3rd string to first.

to me, the B part sounds exactly like Lord McDonald’s B part … i found no difference … although part A i really enjoyed

Thanks Will for your explanation.
As a guitarist listening out for the harmonic implications in the way a tune is played it’s notes like that “e” that can throw me out☺.
My argument is more based on a symmetry of pattern as the last note in the B section bar2 is a “d” and this leads back to the same phrase as the first bar. And again in the last note of the 4th bar it is a “D” this time down an octave, that leads back to the same phrase.
Cheers
Donough

Donough & Will, have you had a look at the O’Neill’s version of this? The endings of the parts are really different - they sort of go down and run into the next part.

One of the first reels i learned as well. It really does fit nicely on the fiddle. learned it from a wind player who said they got it from a printed source (Maybe Robin Williamson’s whistle tutor). haven’t thought of this one in awhile. thanks

Closely follows O’Neill’s #772.