Annotation:Cheese It

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CHEESE IT! AKA and see "Barrack Street Boys (The)," "Brides Away," "Bride to Bed (The)," "British Naggon," "Corney is Coming," "Crawford's Reel (1)," "Kelly's Reel," "Knit the Pocky," "Merry Bits of Timber," "My Love is in America (2)," "Miss Wilson," "My Love is in the House (1)," "Shannon Breeze (2)," "Six Mile Bridge." American, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABBA. A reel of Irish origin (see alternate titles), collected in the United States and included in William Bradbury Ryan's 1883 volume. Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1970) says that 'cheese it' meant, from the year 1855, to 'be quiet' (as in the old film line: "Cheese it! The Cops!"). The tune appears in the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon biography:James Goodman under the title “My Love is in America (2).”

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 30. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 56.