Fiddle Tunes

I add new tunes when time and energy permit.  Most are Appalachian , some are Irish, and a few are something else. I don't play in any formally-recognized style--at least not to my knowledge. All tunes are played from standard GDAE tuning, which is the only tuning I use.

Like old ballads, in many cases is no "standard" version of fiddle tunes--even if some people claim that their way of playing a tune is normal, correct, or standard. Some tunes tend to be played nearly the same way by everyone, and some have many different versions. What you hear below is simply the way I usually play the tunes.

For tunes that include singing, the symbol * indicates traditional lyrics, ~ indicates original lyrics, and ~* indicates a combination of original and traditional lyrics. The superscript ^m indicates a tune that features the mandolin.

A word about tempo. I enjoy playing the fiddle fast. In some of these recordings I tried starting out at a more moderate tempo, but without a bass player or metronome in my ear, the attempt at moderation failed. By the second time around the pace had become noticeably faster. So some of these tunes speed up after they get started. For the most part, I simply start out at a fast pace. Tunes featuring mandolin are at medium speed because I cannot play the mandolin as fast as I can play the fiddle without dropping notes.

The tunes below are in alphabetical order regardless of key or any other property. Click here to see the tunes arranged by key.

Barlow Knife (G Major) *

Betty Liken (A Mixolydian)

Boll Weevil (G Major) ^m

Booth Shot Lincoln (A Major)

Breaking Up Christmas <wildly> (A Major)

Camp Chase (A Major)

Camp Chase (G Major) ^m

Cattle in the Corn [Cattle in the Cane] (A Minor / A Mixolydian)

Childgrove (D Minor) ^m

Coleraine Jig (A Minor)

Crazy Creek (A Minor <moves around>) ^m

Crow Creek (A Major)

Devil's Dream (A Major) ^m

Feed Her Candy and Tell Her Lies (A Major)

Fisher's Hornpipe (D Major)

Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss [Western Country, Suzanna Gal] (D Major) *

Four and Twenty Blackbirds Dancing on a Fawn Skin (A Mixolydian)

Going to Boston <leisurely> (G Major) ^m

Going to Boston <in a hurry> (G Major)

Greasy Coat (A Dorian) ~*

Green Willis [The Raw Recruit] (D Major)

Jamie Allen (G Major) ^m

Kesh Jig (G Major) ^m

Kitchen Girl (A Mixolydian / A Minor)

    Kitchen Girl at a slower tempo in the context of a local jam session

    Video of me playing Kitchen Girl on the mandolin

Liza Jane (A Major) *

Maggots in the Sheep Hide (D Major) ~ ^m

Martha Campbell (D Major)

Nonesuch (D Minor) ^m

Pretty Little Dog (A Minor)

Qunice Dillon's High D (D Major)

Sally in the Garden (A Minor)

Salt Sack Behind the Door (D Major)

Seneca Square Dance [Waiting for the Federals] (G Major)

Shenandoah Falls (A Major)

Shove that Pig's Foot a Little Further in the Fire (G Major)

Smash the Windows (D Major) ^m

Sugar Hill (A Major) *

Sugar Hill (D Major)

Sugar in the Gourd (A Major) ~*

Whiskey Before Breakfast (D Major) *

Wild Hog in the Woods (F Major)

Year of Jubilo [Kingdom Coming] (G Major)

Year of Jubilo [Kingdom Coming] (D Major) ^m

Yellow Rose of Texas (D Major)

You Married My Daughter But Yet You Didn't (G Major)