Annotation:Keep the Country Bonny Lassie

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KEEP THE COUNTRY BONNIE/BONNY LASSIE/LASS. Scottish; Reel. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (McGlashan): AAB (Athole, Gow, Honeyman, Kerr): AABB (Bremner, Vickers): AABB'(Skye). John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of this tune in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. There is a Scottish country dance of the same title which was once danced in parts of Ettrick (taught by a country dance master named James Laidlaw), though Flett & Flett believe it never attained much popularity under the title (or danced to this this tune). The same figures were danced to "Duke of Perth" ("Brown's Reel") and "Pease Strae," called by the names of those tunes, and appeared to be much more widespread in the 19th century.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Bremner (Scots Reels), c. 1757; p. 32. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 487. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 2, 1802; p. 25. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 19. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2; No. 12, p. 4. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 25. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), c. 1786; p. 41. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 24. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 3; No. 447.

Recorded sources: Fretless 118, Marie Rhines - "Reconciliation" (1976).

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]

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