Annotation:All-Star Barn Dance (The)

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ALL-STAR BARN DANCE (THE). AKA and see "Nova Scotia Polka." Irish, Canadian; Barn Dance and Polka (4/4 time). The provenance for this barn dance is unclear. A related, untitled, polka or barn dance appears in Breathnach's CRÉ V (1999, No. 95), from an early 20th century manuscript attributed to the Pigott family of east Kerry. In Canada, it appears under the title "The Nova Scotia" in one of Don Messer's anthologies, and, according to one source, made its way (back?) across the Atlantic to Ireland via a Boston ceili band. The name "All-Star Barn Dance" is from the early 1950's Copley Record recording of the tune by that ceili band who were called the Irish All Stars, consisting of accordion players Jerry O'Brien and Joe Derrane, with Joe's brother George on the banjo. David Taylor transcribed the tune from the playing of The All-Star Ceili Band, Boston, Mass., via the Irish group Shaskeen (Co. Galway, Ireland).

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