Annotation:Little Burnt Potato
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LITTLE BURNT POTATO. AKA - "Burnt Potato." American, Canadian, Irish; Single Jig. USA; New England, New York, Missouri. Canada; Maritimes, Ontario. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Begin): AABB (Brody): AA'BB' (Barnes, Bayard, Carlin, Messer, Miller & Perron, Perlman, Phillips). "Little Burnt Potato" was popularized by Canadian Maritime radio and TV fiddler Don Messer. The tune has been characterized as Irish in origin, although in fact it is the composition of fiddler Colin Boyd. Boyd was born in West Lakeville, Nova Scotia, in 1891, and learned to play the fiddle as a child. He later studied violin in Boston, and had the distinction of being the first Nova Scotian fiddler to record in 1932. He died in 1975. His jig proved popular and has been widely disseminated. It has been a staple of New England contra dances. "Little Burnt Potato" was in the repertoire of Cyril Stinnett (1912-1986), a fiddler who epitomized the "North Missouri Hornpipe Style," and who knew many Canadian tunes from listening to late-night radio when northern stations came in loud and clear. New Hampshire fiddler Omer Marcoux's version is a combination of "Blackberry Quadrille" and "Little Burnt Potato."
Source for notated version: Bradley Grimshaw (northern N.Y.; 1958) [Bayard]; Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa) [Begin]; transplanted French-Canadian fiddler Omer Marcoux {1898-1982} (Concord, N.H.), who identified the tune as "Irish" [Miskoe & Paul]; Francis MacDonald (b. 1940, Morell Rear, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman].
Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 5 (appears as "Arnold's Circle," the name of a dance set to the jig). Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 573, p. 510. Begin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 1, p. 15. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 170. Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 235, p. 137. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 157, p. 106. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 24. Miskoe & Paul (Fiddle Tunes of Omer Marcoux), 1994; p. 45. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 131. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 371.
Recorded sources: F&W Records 6, The Fireside String Band-- "Square Dance Tunes for a Yankee Caller." Fretless 119, Rodney and Randy Miller- "Castles in the Air." Fretless 122, William Santos- "Ole Time Fiddling 1976."
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