FTX-121 - THE BARN DANCERS

A NORTH COUNTRY RANT

A complete "Barn Dance" programme played on traditional instruments - fiddles, melodeon, tin-whistle, piccolo, harmonica, jews harp - with Jack Armstrong's Barn Dance Band. Over 60 tunes recorded by Peter Kennedy in the Northumberland- Cumberland & Scottish Border district - featuring Marches, Quadrilles, Country Dances, Reels, Jigs, Schottisches, Polka-Mazurkas, Varsoviana, Ninepins, Spanish Waltzes, Heel and Toe and other Polkas, Circassian Circle, Ribbon Dance, Sylph, Strip the Willow, Ninepins etc.

1. THE GRAND MARCH (a) "Nancy" (comp Tom Clough) George Armstrong (fiddle) (b) "Cambo March" Ned Pearson (talk/fid) (c) "Father's Old March"/ "Napoleon's Grand March" Billy Conroy (whistle) - 4'45"

2. THE KEEL ROW (Country Dance) (a) Ned Pearson (talk/fid) (b) "Gilsland Hornpipe" Billy Ballantine (piccolo) & Tom Hunter (fid) - 1'37"

3. THE CIRCASSIAN CIRCLE (a) "I'll gang nair mair to yon toon" & "Bonny Dundee" George Taylor (fid)/ (b) "Good Humour" Billy Ballantine (piccolo) - 2'20"

4. THE SQUARE EIGHT (a) "Tenpenny Bit" Jake Hutton (talk/fid) (b) "Hexham Races" (Kenmore Lads) George Taylor (talk/melodeon) (c) "My Love she's but a lassie yet" Bob Clarke (talk/jews harp) (d) "White Cockade", "Davie Davie Knick Knack" & Come Dance and Sing" Tom Edmondson (acc) - 5'10"

5. THE HEEL AND TOE POLKA (a) "The Garden House" Jim Rutherford (talk/fid) (b) "The Clinch Polka" George Taylor (mel) - 2'28"

6. THE SPANISH WALTZ (a) "The Saraband" George Armstrong (talk/fid) (b) "Father's Old Waltz" Billy Conroy (whistle) (c) "We'll all go a-hunting today" Ned Pearson (talk/fid) (d) "Bonny Tyneside" & "Kinloch of Kinloch" Billy Ballantine (picc) & Jimmy Hunter (harmonica) - 5'00"

7. THE RIBBON DANCE "The Fiery Clockface" Ned Pearson (talk/fid) - 1'13"

8. DROPS OF BRANDY (or "Strip the Willow") "Yankee Doodle" George Armstrong (talk/fid) - 1'05"

9. THE SOLDIER'S JOY Ned Pearson (talk/fid) - 1'17"

10. ROXBURGH CASTLE George Armstrong (fid) - 1'10"

11. BARBARA BELL Ned Pearson (talk/fid) - 1'14"

12. THE RIBBON DANCE "Fiery Clockface" & "Smash the Windows" (or "Roaring Jelly") Jack Armstrong's Barnstormers Band - 1'04"

13. THE MORPETH RANT (a) Jim Rutherford (fid) 1.14 (b) "The Old Copy" Ned Pearson (talk/fid) (c) "Morpeth Rant" "Miss Gayton's Hornpipe" & "Jack's the Lad" Tom Edmondson (acc) - 4'42"

14. THE CORN RIGS (a) Jake Hutton (talk/fid) (b) Jim Rutherford (talk/fid) (c) "Corn Rigs" & "Manchester Hornpipe" Bob Clarke (jews harp) - 4'23"

15. CORN RIGS & MORPETH RANT Jack Armstrong's Barnstormers Band - 1'15"

16. THE KIELDER SCHOTTISCHE "The Lad wi the Plaidie" Billy Ballantine (picc) with Jake Hutton & Tom Hunter (fiddles) - 2'12"

17. NANCY TILL & THE MALTESE SCHOTTISCHE George Armstrong (talk/fid) - 2'00"

18. THE PLAIN SCHOTTISCHE Billy Ballantine (picc) & Jimmy Hunter (harm) - 0'56"

19. THE SYLPH (a) "The Self" George Armstrong (fid) (b) "The Sylph" Billy Ballantine (talk/picc) (c) "Staten Island" George Taylor (talk/fid) (d) "Father's Old Jig" "The Sylph" & "Paddle your own Canoe" Ned Pearson (talk/fid) - 5'45"

20. NINEPINS & NINEPIN REEL (a) "Hexham Lasses" ("Drunken Sailor") Jake Hutton (talk/fid) (b) "The Coquet Reel" Billy Ballantine (picc) 0.51/ (c) "Astley's Ride" George Taylor (mel) - 3'13"

21. THE POLKA MAZURKA Ned Pearson (talk/fid) - 1'30"

22. THE VARSOVIANA (a) "Cock Your Leg Up" Geordie Taylor (talk/fid) (b) "Father's Old Tunes" Ned Pearson (fid) - 1'28"

23. THE TRIUMPH (a) Geordie Taylor (talk/fid) (b) Jack Armstrong's Barnstormers Band - 1'58"

Recorded by Peter Kennedy 1954. Edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax Cassettes 1975.

"Geordie", GEORGE ARMSTRONG (61) shepherd of Camp Hill, Barrasford, near Hexham, learned from his uncles (fiddlers) & mother (auto-harp player)

NED PEARSON (78) was a footman to dukes & ambassadors and gamekeeper to Sir Charles Trevelyan, Cambo, near Morpeth (born 1876 & died 1964)

BILLY CONROY miner from Ashington

JACK ARMSTRONG (fiddler & leader of "The Barnstormers Band") Wide Open, Newcastle - featured on FT-122 "Pipes of Northumbria"

GEORGE TAYLOR (62) of Rennington/ BOB CLARKE of Powburn, near Whittingham

JAKE HUTTON (60) of Bewcastle, Cumberland

TOM HUNTER (62) of Gilsland, Cumberland

JIMMY HUNTER (50) of Haydon Bridge, Hexham.