The Arms Dealer’s Daughter reel

Written by Angus Grant, fiddler for the Scottish celto-punk band Shooglenifty. Don’t take the key signature that seriously. The tune is in an Eastern mode of some sort or another, reminiscent of “Kandahar” https://thesession.org/tunes/3310 which I submitted a while back.

They play it both very slow and rather fast. Listen to the recording before making your preference.

Here is how I play it:

X: 1
T: Arms Dealer’s Daughter, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: ????
K: Emin
B2AG EedB|edBe dBAB|B2AG EBAG|DEED EGAB|
B2AG EedB|edBe dBAB|cBAd2 BAB|GABA B2 B2:|
e2dB gedg|edbg agef|e2dB ged(A|A)BcA B2 B2|
e2dB gedg|edbg agef|gfea gedB|ABcd e2 e2:|

I found this in my ABC’s archive when reviewing some tunes and discovered it’s different to the two settings already on the site. I think I may have got it from the Shooglenifty official website many years ago when they had the notation for a small number of their tunes available as a download. But I can’t remember for sure (and it’s not on the site now)
I also have the Introduction/Bridge notated as follows:
X:1
T:Two-fifty to Vigo (Intro & bridge)
C:Angus R Grant
D:Shooglenifty. Venus in Tweeds
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:Reel
K:Bm
|“Bm” B2 .f2 Bf2 B| “Bm-5”=f4 edBA | “Bm”B2 .f2 Bf2 B| “Bm-5” =f4 edBA |
“Bm” B2 .f2 Bf2 B| “Bm-5”=f4 edBA | “Bm” B2 .f2 Bf2 B| e8 ||

Anyhow I am a great fan of Shoogenifty and was lucky to see them play a few times with Angus in the line up. I also saw him play some ‘real’ traditional tunes in a concert with his father, also Angus, in a small venue on the north of Skye.

Ooops - wrong tune - this is Two Fifty to Vigo…tried to delete