Gerald Thomas’ Burnt Potato reel

This is wonderful tune written by the late great Newfoundland fiddler, Emile Benoit. He wrote it following an incident where his friend, Gerald Thomas, managed to burn his potatoes while boiling them!
I find this tune works really well in a set when preceded by Hound’s tune, a tune oft played by another late great Newfoundland fiddler, Rufus Guinchard.

Something I often do (but didn’t include in the ABC) is turn those F# quarter notes into triplets. In other words, measure 5 in the A part and measure 5 in th B part. Special thanks to ceolachan for all his help with getting the ABC format right. Cheers buddy!

Homage to Emile, and hopefully this won’t roust him from his sleep, but this lovely melody had me doing this with it, a small sample:

K: b minor
|: dc |
BF F/F/F dF F/F/F | AFED B,/C/B, A,B, | DEFE DEFA | ecAc B/c/B dc |
BF F/F/F dF F/F/F | AFED B,2 A,B, | DE E/E/E DE F/G/A | ecAc B2 :|
|: Bc |
defe dc B/c/d | cded cBAc | d2 f/e/d cdec |
[1 AB c/B/A B2 Bc | d2 fe dcBd | c2 ed cBAc | d2 fd c2 ec | A2 c/B/A B2 :|
[2 A2 cA B2 dc | BF F/F/F dF F/F/F | AFED B,2 A,B, | DE E/E/E DEFA | ecAc B2 ||

Tie Aindriu ~ we were both thinking triplets, which can be shown either way ~ (3FFF ~ or ~ F/F/F ~ as I’ve given them above… I didn’t see your post until I hit the button [ post ] to add the above transcript…

Those triplets could also be rolled, or, one example, bar 1 -

|: dc | B ~F3 d ~F3 | - - -
or as some like to show it -
|: dc | BF ~F2 dF ~F2 | - - -

Here’s a nice youtube clip of this reel on fiddle and guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MXraaYw6-U

play video

The second half of the B part is different from the one that Aindriu posted - and quite similar, incidentally, to ceolachan’s variation.

Great tune, either way. I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I heard Aindriu himself play it on bouzouki at a session I visited in St. John’s earlier this month!