Annotation:Silver Cluster Reel
X: 1 T: Silver Cluster -- Reel B: Ryan's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes R: reel M: 2/4 L: 1/16 Z: Contributed 20010522204905 by John Chambers jc:trillian.mit.edu F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/book/ryan-cole/Tunes/SilverClusterReel.abc K: Bb ((3uFGA) \ | B3d cBcd | Bdfb (~g2f2) | (ba)gf gfdB | cdcB GBF2 | (B3.d) cBcd | Bdfb (~g2f2) | (ba)gf gfdB | cBGA B2 :| |: "_f"uf2 \ | ("_fz"g3.a) b2ag | (fb)df BdF2 | {d}c=Bcd e2A2 | {c}BABc d2f2| ("_fz"g3.a) b2ag | (fb)df BdF2 | {d}c=Bcd e2A2 | B2{c}BA B2 :|]
SILVER CLUSTER REEL. AKA – “Silver Cluster Cacti.” AKA and see "Pickerel Reel." American, Reel. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. One of the "Off to California (1)"/”Whiskey You’re the Devil” tune family (though with a different second strain) see Bayard's (1944, 1981) note for "annotation:Buttermilk and Cider." Viola “Mom” Ruth, a champion fiddler from Arizona who published a tune collection in the late 1940’s, gives the name as “Silver Cluster Cacti,” a nice south-western casting of the Ryan’s/Cole’s title. Perhaps the earliest recording is from 1913 by violinist Charles D’Alamaine, born in 1871 in England, who died in 1943. D’Alamaine immigrated to the United States in 1888, and by 1890 had established himself as “instructor on violin” in Evanston, Illinois; by 1910 he had removed to Yonkers, and in 1920 was a chiropractor in New York City (info. from Paul Gifford).
Fr. John Quinn finds Bisbee's "Pickerel Reel" to be a cognate melody, and suggests comparison with "Off to California (1)" (particularly the first strain).
