Doc Boyd’s jig

Dave Swarbrick is a tremendously exciting fiddle and mandolin player from the Birmingham area, and it was there that he was persuaded by Beryl Marriot to drop the guitar in favour of the fiddle. He learned quickly, and played and learned from the many fine Irish fiddlers in the city, although one of his main influences at that time was Scottish fiddler Kate Graham.

‘Doc Boyd’s Jig’ comes from his Swarbrick solo album, but I know nothing about the tune, and I haven’t come across it anywhere else. In this transcription I have transposed it from the original C major to a more flute-friendly D major - I hope nobody strongly disagrees with this (but if you do, let me know why).

A close variant of this tune is listed in the Fiddler’s Companion as "Gigue du Forgeron" (Blacksmith’s Jig), a French-Canadian tune by Joseph Allard.

T:Gigue du Forgeron
C:Joseph Allard
M:6/8
L:1/8
Z:abc by Bruce Osborne - bosborne@kos.net
K:D
A|dcd AFA|dfb a2f|gfg Ace|dfd AFA|
dcd AFA|dfb a2f|gfg Ace|d2d d2:|
g|b3 -bag|faa agf|gfg Ace|ba^g a2a|
gbb bag|faa agf|gfg Ace|d2 dd2:|

Knowing some of Swarb’s work, I’d guess his setting is really the variant. 🙂

Thanks, MTGuru, that’s really interesting. And I agree with you, I feel the setting you posted is the original.

Hold on guys, I know this one too, a slightly different A-part, closer to MTGuru, and a different B-part, which now I can’t for the life of my bring to mind. I think I picked this up in Cape Breton or somewhere in the Maritimes. Now I’m going to have a restless sleep. I’ve done a few searches since you added this Nigel, but now I have "Paddy’s Resource" also going through my head. I keep getting to the beginning of the B-part and then fry… The ‘Bruce Osborne’ transcription of "Gigue du Forgeron" is familiar, but somehow not quite how I learned this…

I just hope I don’t steal all the blankets and sheets from my poor wife because of this. I can see me mumbling when she drags them back and whacks me ~ "It’s Nigel’s fault!"

Good night all, for all of you but not for me… 😏

I just remembered, I had a bout of listening to a lot of Joseph Allard recordings recently… Maybe I can find this there? That won’t necessarily settle my restless mind…

ceolachan - I take full responsibility for your poor sleep, and if you’d like to refer your wife to me I’ll accept any punishment she deems appropriate.

Uh oh ~ here we go again… Now I’ve made a note of it. I’ll have to come back to just the one part as planned later in the week and see what surfaces, as well as checking those Allard recordings, etc…

No worry Nigel, she’s actually sweet and she’d most probably like you and I’d get a telling off… 😏

The Joseph Allard version is available at Virtual Gramophone, where it’s archived as "Reel du Forgeron". There’s an mp3 at
http://amicus.collectionscanada.ca/gramophone-bin/Main/ItemDisplay?l=0&l_ef_l=-1&v=1&lvl=1&coll=24&itm=31396254