Miss Linda MacFarlane reel

Not a reel but a beautiful slow Scottish air, I don’t know much about the tune or who composed it. It’s a simple tune with a lovely melody.

I haven’t heard it as a slow air, Jack. It’s usually played as a march or a schottische:

X:1
T:Miss Linda MacFarlane
C:Robin Brock
S:Learned from Auld Spice Ceilidh Band
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G
D2 | G2 F>G DGBd | d2 c>A G2 F>G | E2 e>d cBAG | B2 A2 A2
D2 | G2 F>G DGBd | d2 c>A G2 F>G | E2 e>d cFBA | G2 G>A G2 ||
B>c | d2 B>c dBgd | e2 c>d ecge | d2 D>G Bdgd | B2 A2 A2
D2 | G2 F>G DGBd | d2 c>A G2 F>G | E2 e>d cFBA | G2 G>A G2 |]

"Miss Linda MacFarlane" is very often played by another composition by Robin Brock called "MacRostie Park" (a Victorian park in my home town of Crieff in Perthshire, with an old-fashioned bandstand in it). I don’t know whether to reproduce "MacRostie Park" in these notes, or as a separate tune. Hmmm…

Robin Brock is a bass player who recorded with the likes of The Corries in the 1960s, and has played in several Scottish country dance bands.

X:2
T:MacRostie Park
C:Robin Brock
S:Learned from Auld Spice Ceilidh Band
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:D
D/E/ | F2 A>F | EF DF/G/ | A2 f>e | dB A2 | Bd GB | Ad FA | G>F ED | CE A
D/E/ | F2 A>F | EF DF/G/ | A2 f>e | dB A2 | Bd GB | AF dF | E>G FE | FD D ||
d/e/ | f>A df | eA ce | dF Bd | cA F2 | Bd GB | Ad FA | G>F ED | CE A
D/E/ | F2 A>F | EF DF/G/ | A2 f>e | dB A2 | Bd GB | AF dF | E>G FE | FD D |]

I learned both of these tunes from one of my favourite bands, Auld Spice, made up entirely of retired people, who play at various community events in the Edinburgh area.
http://www.auldspice.com

Have just been playing this at a steady rant tempo as written here and I really want to use it as a dance tune. I can clearly feel the stepping of L,R,L,hop etc. Super tune.

Lovely tune Nigel, it goes very well with Linda MacFarlane

With harmonies

I used to play it as a march, coupled with Kelso Fiddle and Accordion Club.
https://thesession.org/tunes/11644

I happened upon this while looking up our new website at Auld Spice Band: yes we still play MacRosty Park and Linda Macfarlane as a Gay Gordons set, so in march tempo. We also play them as our "warm-up"/soundcheck set.
Nigel’s kind comment of 13 years ago was before I joined the band: there have been some changes of personnel along the road: sadly lost a couple of players, and we’re no longer "all retired" with our much younger fiddler, Claire, bringing the average age down with a bump!
And the new website is here: www.auldspiceband.co.uk
tho’ who knows when we’ll next get to pay a gig? We are practising weekly on Zoom FWIW.