Light-House Reel .wmv

Comment by Bo on October 21, 2011 at 8:09am

Tim, I really like this tune and the "Sprite's Polka".  You really make them come alive!  WIll you be posting the music for those two tunes?  I would really appreciate it if you do!  Thank you for everything - Bo Ramirez

Comment by Tim Twiss on October 21, 2011 at 9:34am

Thank you Bo. I'm at work and not at a scanner, but you can get them from the link Jim Dalton posted and is now in the Resources / Websites section found above...Hamilton College. If you don't get to it by later tonight, I'll be happy to post them. Otherwise, go in there and enjoy the entire book.

Comment by Bo on October 21, 2011 at 9:38am

Great!  I will go to Resource link.  I appreciate the heads up!

Comment by Ed Womack on October 21, 2011 at 11:28am

Amazing neck cam... I felt like I was riding the banjo...

Comment by Rob Morrison on October 21, 2011 at 1:19pm

Tim--

Other people may have already commented, but the "Light House Reel" sounds Just like Off to California."

Comment by Bell Banjos on October 21, 2011 at 1:26pm

Off To California !!!  I've been playing that since I was a wee lad of 17 !!

Comment by Tim Twiss on October 21, 2011 at 1:45pm

DING!! 2 winners.  That's what I thought too. I'm sure it has yet another title somewhere.

Comment by Ian Bell on October 21, 2011 at 7:03pm

I see I've already been beaten to, "hey, that's a setting of...." I think it's different enough to have its own name. Great tune whatever you want to call it.

Comment by Al Smitley on October 22, 2011 at 7:19am

Regarding "Off to California" and all the many other titles which this tune family goes by.

I've always been curious as to the earliest printing of this tune and the earliest date that it is referred to as "Off to California".

Comment by Ian Bell on October 22, 2011 at 8:38am

Here's what "The Fiddler's Companion" website has to say about OTC. (it's not the absolute final word on these matters but it's pretty amazing")

OFF/GOING TO CALIFORNIA [1] (Imtigte Go California). AKA and see "Going to California," "Humours of California" and "Far From Home," "The Whiskey Hornpipe," "Whiskey You're the Devil," "Whiskey in the Jar [1]," “Portsmouth Hornpipe,’ "Possum Up a Gum Stump [1]," "Old Towser," "Lexington," “Miss Johnson’s Hornpipe,” "Gypsy Hornpipe [4]," "Buttermilk and Cider" (Pa.), "Fireman's Reel." Irish, English, American; Hornpipe. USA; New England, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning. AB (Plain Brown, Silberberg): AABB (most versions). Irish in origin, although the melody has been adopted by several genres. The first part combines with other parts for "Fireman's Reel," "I'm Waiting for You [2]," "Silver Cluster," and "Five Miles Out of Town." A version from the North of England appears as “A Clog Dance” in the Plain Brown Tune Book, the c. 1847 manuscript of Ellis Knowles, a musician from Radcliffe, Lancashire. Seattle fiddler, producer and folklorist Vivian Williams found a version of “Off to California” in a hand-written music manuscript book dating from the 1860’s and 1870’s from western Oregon, where the melody is titled only as “Jig Cotillion.” Like many such manuscripts, it belonged to a musical family, and tunes were entered in different hands and probably different generations. Francis O’Neill also collected the tune in California in the mid-19^th century. Allan's Irish Fiddler, No. 100, pg. 25 (appears as "Humours of California"). See also the related “Hillside Cottage” and the reel “You Bet.” Source for notated version: Capt. Francis O'Neill learned this tune in the San Joaquin Valley of California when he was aged 19--presumably the title appealed to him in his circumstances, having left County Cork in his mid-teens [O'Neill/Irish Folk Music]. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 205. Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; 83. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), vol. 2, 1954; pg. 3. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1, pg. 45 (appears as “Clog Dance”). Kerr (Collection of Reels and Strathspeys), pg. 35. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 180. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 1628, pg. 302. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 859, pg. 148. Plain Brown Tu

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