Annotation:We'll all go to Kelso
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WE’LL ALL GO TO TO KELSO. AKA - "We'll a' to Kelso go." AKA and see "Hunt the Squirrel (1)." Scottish, Jig or Two-Step. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Kelso is a town in the Scottish Borders region, near where the rivers Tweed and Teviot meet. Kelso is famous for its racecourse (see note for "annotation:Kelso Races"), which, along with the natural beauty of the region, would be one reason to 'all go to Kelso'. David Herd prints Allan Ramsay's Scots song called "We'll a' to Kelso go" in his Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, vol. 2, 1776), The first few stanza's go:
An I'll awa' to bonny Tweed-side,
And fee my deary come throw,
And he fall be mine, gif fae he incline,
For I hate to lead apes below.
While young and fair, I'll make it my care,
To secure mysell in a jo;
I'm no sick a fool to let my blood cool,
And syne gae lead apes below.
Stenhouse notes that Allan Ramsay's song (whose first line begins) "An I'll awa to bonny Tweedside," published in his Tea-Table Miscellany (1726) was directed to be sung to the tune of "We'll a' to Kelso go." The words were adapted for Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, set to the tune in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 6, (1760, p. 11). Stenhouse supposed that the old song of "We'll a' to Kelso go" was lost. John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900) notes that Oswald's melody "is only a slightly altered version of "Geud Man of Ballangigh (The)", a "new Scotch jig," found in Playford's Dancing Master, 1696." In addition to Oswald's printing, John Glen (1891) finds the tune in print in the collections of Robert Bremner (1768 2nd collection, p. 105), James Aird, and Joseph Reinagle. See also the variant "Hunt the Squirrel (1)."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II), 1785; No. 94, p. 34. Neill (The Scots Fiddle: Tunes, Tales & Traditions of the Lothians, Borders), pp. 104-105. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 6), 1760; p. 11.
Recorded sources: