Annotation:Pat the Budgie

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PAT THE BUDGIE. AKA - "Pat the Budgie Breakdown." Canadian, Reel. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC (Phillips): AA’BB’CC’ (Songer). Composed by Barrie, Ontario, fiddler Graham Townsend [1] (1942-1998), around 1960. It was named for a real budgie (a Budgerigar, a small parrot native to Australia) who used to perch on his fiddle bow. The reel is occasionally mistakenly attributed to Canadian fiddler Don Messer, however, three members (Waldo Munro, Duke Neilsen & Warren MacRae) of Messers band the Islanders, accompanied Townsend on his first record for Banff Records in 1960.

Source for notated version: Becky Tracy [Phillips].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 181. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 157.

Recorded sources: Banff Recors RBS 1083, Graham Townsend - "Famous Canadian Fiddlers vol. 1" (1960). Green Linnett, Seamus Connolly - "Here & There" (1989). Green Linnett 3085, Four Men and a Dog - “Barking Mad” (1991). RC2000, George Wilson – “Royal Circus” (2000). Gerry Conlon & Seamus O'Sullivan - "All Around the World" (2003). Pam Weeks - "Waiting for the Perseids."

See also listing at:
Hear Graham Townsend's recording at Slippery-Hill [2]
Hear the reel performed on youtube.com by Blazing Fiddles [3]