Annotation:Ike Forrester's Reel (1)
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
IKE FORRESTER'S REEL [1]. AKA and see "Boys of the Lake (2)," "Corkonian," "Merry Blacksmith (The)," "Paddy on the Railway," "Peeler's Jacket (1)," "Policeman's Reel (The)," "Railroad (2) (The)," "Shepherd in the Gap (The)," "Shepherd on the Gap (The)," "Peeler's Reel." Francis O'Neill named this tune after Ike Forrester, the fiddling village blacksmith of Edina, Missouri, who played this tune at local dances where O'Neill played the flute. O'Neill describes the attendees at the affair as "a motley crowd--fiddlers galore, and each with his instrument. Irish, Germans, French--types of their respective races--and the gigantic Kentuckians, whose heads were endangered by the low ceilings, crowded in, and never a misunderstanding or display of ill-nature marred those gatherings. Seated behind the fiddler, intent on picking up the tunes, was my accustomed post" (O'Neill, Irish Folk Music).
