The English celebrate Burns' Night

On the weekend when Australians have an extra day holiday to celebrate Australia Day, many English celebrate the birth of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, who was born on 25 January 1759. The increasing popularity of celebrating this Scottish tradition in England is matched by the St Patrick's day celebrations in England. Against this, it seems a shame that many traditional English celebrations have all but died out and we don't seem to do much for St George's day or Shakespeare's birthday either.
However, The Mizen Ramblers, never slow to see an opportunity, dusted of their Scottish repertoire and played at two Burns' Nights events. One was for a village association and one for a school Parents Association.
Both events were very well organised and well attended with all really entering into everything, including some lively dancing to the Mizen Ramblers. We started off the evenings with Scottish music as the guests arrived. The band was then well fed while the traditional Burns' Night ceremonies took place. This was followed by dancing to The Mizen Ramblers and the evening was finished off with the singing of Rabbie Burns' Auld Lang Syne.

Piping in the haggis.

'Address to a haggis'

The Mizen Ramblers in action

Dancing to the Mizen Ramblers

A busy June weekend

This weekend was the start of some busy musical weekends for me. Friday evening saw me playing double bass in a 50s band at Brill Sports and Social Club - an interesting experience!

By Saturday afternoon, I was on more familiar territory playing banjo for the Haddenham Hoofers at Bourton Meadow, Buckingham. Musicians also pictured are Ed Houghton -guitar, Penny Heydon - fiddle and Tim Mason - 5 string banjo.


Saturday evening was an open air barn dance at Ardley, Oxfordshire with the Mizen Ramblers. The sun was still shining when this photo was taken but it got a bit chilly in the darkness later on! I'm playing my 5 string acoustic/electric bass guitar. Also pictured from left to right: Tom Bell-Richards - fiddle, Jed Mugford -fiddle, Mike Gardiner - fiddle and Trevor Toms - guitar.

Searching for Folk Tunes

If you are trying to find the 'dots' for folk tunes, here are some web sites and information that maybe helpful.
For English, Irish, Scottish and American tunes try http://www.thesession.org/ You can search for the name of the tune. If you find the tune and would like to print it out or send it to someone else, I suggest the following:
click ABC, Highlight all the text & copy
Go to http://www.concertina.net/
click Tune-a-Tron
click ABC Convert-A-Matic
paste, submit, PDF sheet music
You can save it as a PDF file to print off or send to someone else.
Another site for Irish tunes is www.ceilidhsoc.org/music.html

http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_1/ has nice versions of a whole lot of Irish standard tunes to listen to played at sensible but not patronising speeds.
There's a lot of other nice stuff on the Comhaltas site too. In particular some excellent videos.
If you've not come across it before Comhaltas is the main Irish traditional music organisation - Full name - Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Association of Irish Musicians)
This pronounced something like Kool-tas Kool-tori air-ann
There's a pronunciation guide with sound samples as well so one can find out how to say "Buíon Cheoil Fheadóg Mhór" properly!

Please let me know via a comment if you have found this useful.

Many thanks to Tom Bell-Richards (Oxford Fiddle Group and Mizen Ramblers) Matt Morton (Kinderhook) and Tony Blay (Haddenham Irish Session) for some of the above information.