Salmon Tails Up the Water

At our January 28 meeting, Kat Eggleston & John Daly introduced us to "Salmon Tails Up the Water." Kat described it as another top tune at celtic music session gigs. Hunting it on YouTube, I found some really rocked-out versions, and it seems to be a fav at contra dances, too. So once we get the tempo up to dance-speed, we should have as much fun with this tune as we do with "Morrison's" or any other jig.

First off, the group recording made by Kim of Kat & John playing the tune slowly: here's the link to it on sound cloud:
https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/salmon-tails

Here's a very shaky but rip-roaring version from a gang of youngsters calling themselves "OysterBand" who are rocking the Tønder Festival audience in Winnipeg, Canada. Catch the frontman fiddler in the deep back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzaauxlKdhI

And here's the sheet music, should you need it. The beat is on the 1 & 3.

Swish those tails!

The Blarney Pilgrim

In Kat & John's first session for Winter 2015's RISK, we learned an Irish tune Kat called "from the top 50 of Irish sessions"—"The Blarney Pilgrim." It's in 6/8 time, key of D, and Kat did it (after warning us not to try this ourselves!) in DADGAD tuning. I think I'll give it a whirl in Drop-D tuning later tonight...

First off, here's Kat & John playing "Blarney Pilgrim" on guitar and pipe. The recordings are on SoundCloud and the links will take you there—
https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/blarney-pilgrimkatjohn

and all of us trotting out the tune several times in a longish recording—
https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/blarney-pilgrimall

Second, here's a YouTube of a couple guys on guitar and violin who give this tune a faster spin—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snszf3tK3QE&list=RDSnszf3tK3QE#t=38

And finally, here's the sheet music. The penciled-in letters stand for alternative notes you can play instead of those right above. Enjoy!

BACK DOOR

Eeeee-ha! I've played this Cajun tune with David Lange, Melanie Solanen, and Chris Anderson plenty of times at the Thursday night Coop Jam. Like a lot of the tunes Dave brings, it's got that lonnnnnng melody line that just doesn't want to turn that chord corner... and then WHAM, it does. The tune is linked to SoundCloud where much of our music has to be stored, and the sheet's downloadable. It's in G, no problemo for us guitarists.

https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/back-door