Hats Off to Summer by Carl Thor:
The mood of this jaunty jig is a good match for its upbeat title. It was written by Megaband hammer dulcimer and piano player, Carl Thor, and can be found in his tune book of original music, Come to the Dance Hall. It can also be heard on YouTube midway through the clip.
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The Joy of My Life:
Joy of My Life, which goes by quite a few other names–The Joys of Wedlock and Donnybrook Fair–is a standard Irish jig.
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Da Moorit Lamb by Tom Anderson:
I found Da Moorit Lamb in Shetland fiddler Tom Anderson’s tune book Ringing Strings. The note on this tune states, “Written in 1973 while watching the antics of a young lamb. Moorit is a colour similar to dark brown, and was very rare at one time.” Several of the Megaband fiddlers tuned their fiddles A-E-A-E to play the set that this tune was a part of. We are unable to locate the copyright holder for this tune. If any reader can point us in the right direction, we would appreciate that.
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O’Keefe’s Slide (Pittsfield Open Band setting):
I was privileged to direct the Pittsfield Open Band in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2007. This setting of O’Keefe’s Slide was in its repertoire, and I thought it sounded great the way they played it. So I brought it back to Portland for our Megaband–it also worked well for us with some fiddles were tuned A-E-A-E on it. This Am version is similar to the Em setting of “O’Keefe’s Slide” that can be found in The Portland Collection (1).
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Da Shaalds:
This tune also comes from the CD Da Farder ben da Wekamer by Fiddler’s Bid. Therese Vogel gave me several recordings by this band, and they have proved to be a gold mine both in terms of wonderful listening and as a source of material for the Megaband as well as other bands. Fiddler’s Bid plays this tune in A-E-A-E tuning without chordal accompaniment. We copied them blatantly in our rendition here.
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Zinnia’s Favorite by Ethan Hazzard-Watkins:
I first heard this tune while dancing on the deck of a wooden boat moored at a Greek island! Mary Lea and Peter Barnes were the musicians, and we were all on a Ken McFarland contra dance trip. Back at home, I found Zinnia’s Favorite in Ethan’s tune book A is for Avocaado and immediately added it to my own repertoire as well as that of the Portland Megaband. Ethan wrote this tune for Zinnia Siegel, daughter of Peter and Michelle Siegel. He wrote it an octave lower than is printed here. You can check out Ethan’s website and purchase his tune book and his recording In the Window at www.ethanhw.com.