The Genesis of This Tune
On the evening of 2010 June 26, I was at West Mabou Hall well before the start of the weekly square dance at 22h, as is my wont, sitting in my usual corner watching Kinnon and Betty Lou Beaton get set up for the dance. After they were ready, Kinnon crooked his finger at me, signalling that he wanted me to come over to the raised stage where they were seated. As I did so, he reached into his fiddle case and pulled out a piece of white paper, a scan of which is seen below, and presented it to me. I was floored, flabbergasted, and flummoxed when I read its contents and saw that he had named a tune he had composed for me. I stammered my totally inarticulate thanks to Kinnon for this wonderful gift; he and Betty Lou then played it through so that I could hear how it sounded. What an incredible surprise this was!
Once I got back to New Jersey, I transcribed the standard musical notation into its ABC form and ran it through a program named Barfly, which can read ABC music and produce a synthetic version in bagpipe, flute, piano, or violin; of these, I find the piano and fiddle renditions the most realistic, though neither sounds to my ears like the actual instrument and neither even begins to approach the rich, textured version Kinnon and Betty Lou played for me. Still, they do convey the melody, so I have included them here.
Since it’s such a fine tune, when I was there at Celtic Colours this past fall, I asked Kinnon if I could publish it on my web site; he graciously agreed, so here it is. Copyright and all other rights to this tune of course remain with Kinnon. Enjoy!
Updated 2018 January 6: In 2017, Kinnon Beaton published this tune in Kinnon Beaton: A 4th Book of Original Fiddle Tunes, p. 97.
