Brenda Stubbert’s reel

Um…this tune was written by Brenda Stubbert, a Cape Breton fiddler, and she holds copyright on it. Enjoy it for personal use, but send Brenda a check if you play it for profit.

Whistle players could try it in Bm - works well, I think.

odd, I always thought that Jerry Holland wrote this tune. Learn something new every day, eh? This tune gets played alot around here (well, at the 3 sessions I’ve been to, here in Santa Fe and Abq, it has been played each time) - great tune and the audiences seem to love it.

I really like this reel. It was written by Jerry Holland for Brenda Stubbert (it’s in “Jerry Holland’s Collection of FiddleTunes” a book published by Paul Cranford), a great fiddler from Cape Breton. We often play it after Cutting Ferns, and sometimes follow it with High Road to Linton or Cooley’s Reel.

Duh, you’re both right, it’s Jerry Holland. Sometimes I take my brain out of its case but forget to rosin the bow…..

Lower the key to E Dorian, and move on to “Killarney Boys of Pleasure.” It sounds great.

The Bm version is in the Lunasa Tune Book, which confirms that the tune was written by Jerry Holland in honour of Brenda. I was taught this tune (Ador version) yesterday in a workshop, hence this comment. Whether I can play it yet is quite another matter…

Or play Killarney Boys of Pleasure in A minor, just move over a string.

Does anybody happen to have (and would you please post?) Mutt’s Favorite, which is what Jerry Holland put after this on The Fiddlesticks Collection? The set he has is Cutting Ferns/Alex Dan MacIsaac’s/Brenda Stubbert’s/Mutt’s Favorite, then Bernadette’s and Lady Gordon of Gordonstown. Then they reattach his bow arm.

In the B part, I play the A to a and A to g jumps as a low A triplet and then a high a triplet, and then the same for the high g. Really, really nice sound on the banjo! All around great tune, perhaps my favorite.

I learned the Bm version because it was a bit easier on the flute. Cooley’s works really nicely after it.

He has a few of his other tunes on his website at http://www.jerryholland.com/

And here is an MP3 of Jerry playing this tune:

http://www.cranfordpub.com/mp3s/jerryholland9.mp3

I’ve been playing like this:

K: Ador
A2BA GAAB|A2Bd eddB|G2BA BGGB|c2BA BGGB|
~A3B GABG|A2Bd edda|gedB GABd|e2dB eA~A2:|
Aza2 Azg2|eage ageg|G2BA BGGB|c2BA BGGB|
Aza2 Azg2|eage agea|gedB GABd|e2dB eA~A2|
Aza2 Azg2|eage ageg|G2BA BGGB|c2BA BGGB|
A3A GABG|A2Bd edda|gedB GABd|e2dB eA~A2||

I think the first part was influenced by the Edinburgh version of the tune. Nobody else plays my version, but it’s much easier on whistle or flute.

This tune is really well-known but isn’t standard at all in Ireland (though the situation seem a little bit different in some parts of Britain and the States). But it’s true there are some fanatic fans of this C. B. tune who often play it as a solo piece.

Just to clarify come confusion from earlier posts, this tune was indeed composed by the great Jerry Holland from Cape Breton (home).

Brilliant tune that really get’s audiences fired up.

one of these hexatonic tunes that come very handy when I fiddle on me old battered piano with its one slow, quiet, sunken F# and one jangling, jarring flat f#!

‘why play all the notes when only the best will do?’ (saw this on a jazzbuff’s tshirt once)
This tune examplifies this principle beautifully:
or/and was the auld mythical scots thriftiness at work here? (lots of repeated bars and motifs, a 6 note scale within just over the range of an octave) Halleluja!

Love It so unusual and definitely a crowd pleaser
Tricky Rhythm to it I finally got it in the end
Phew!!

So just what is it that makes this tune A dorian as opposed to A aeolian (= minor)? There isn’t an F in it anywhere. And Jerry Holland didn’t suggest using any chords with an F of any description in them as accompaniment. Yet it’s transcribed in his book with one sharp.
I tend to avoid using an F chord in accompaniment but I know a lot of people who don’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx9g6iLEE8M

play video

Does anyone have guitar chords for this one? Please 🙂
I play flute but I like to give chords to my dad so he’ll play his guitar with me.

http://www.jerryholland.com/tunes/BrendaStubberts.gif

🙂

I just heard Jock Tamsons Bairns playing Hugh Macdonald. It reminds me of Brenda Stubberts. Via jc´s tune finder i got this version:

X: 1
T:Alex Hugh MacDonald
R:pipe jig
C:Brenda Stubbert, SOCAN
O:20th century Cape Breton
S:Tune of the Month, May 1999
A:<http://www.capebretonet.com/Music/Stubbert>;
D:Some Tasty Tunes, Brenda Stubbert, 1999
N:Contacts …
N:Recordings and bookings
N:….. <brenda@cranfordpub.com
N:Tune books and related recordings
N:….. Cranford Publications <http://www.cranfordpub.com>;
H:Copyrights:Published by Stubbert Music
Z:This abc transcription is for personal use only
Q:300
L:1/8
M:6/8
F:http://jc.tzo.net/~jc/music/abc/mirror/interlog.com/stubbertarchive.abc 2014-01-06 221321 UT
K:Ador
B|:AGE A2 B|edB deg|BAB G2 D|EGA BAG|!
AGE A2 B|edB deg|age edB|[1BAA A2 a:|[2BAA A2||!
|:B|ABA a2 f|gfe edB|BAB g2 e|fed edB|!
[1ABA a2 f|gfe edB|BAB gdB|BAA A2:|!
[2 AGE A/A/A B|edB deg|age edB|BAA A2|]!

what do you think of it?

Isn’t this somewhat incestuously related to James Morrison of Assynt House?

It Actually also works quite well with “The Snipe”

As played by Altan on The Red Crow album — with triplets at every opportunity.

a mix of X2 and X5 is how its played at my local session