Tommy Peoples : The Laird of Drumblair/Little John's Hame [Strathspeys]

[fiddlermacleod]

Excellent performance!

N.B. I've got a recording of Scott Skinner himself playing "The Laird of Drumblair" and the speed is very similar to this performance (allowing for early recording techniques). If it was good enough for the "Strathspey King" in 1910 then it is good enough for me today.

[Tonefid115]

One of the best trad fiddlers!

[dwaynedibbly]

@sillybabybunnies lol seems so form what ive seen.

[murrmac]

The Laird of Drumblair is played far, far, too fast.

It's a strathspey, FFS ...

[ceadachrua]

@murrmac Calm yerself, remember this is Donegal style fiddling- strathspeys get played faster in this style than they do by most modern Scottish trad players.

[murrmac]

@ceadachrua thing is, the strathspey is a dance, and a very graceful dance too. If any lassie tried to dance to this, she would end up with multiple fractures to the toes and ankles. I am all for speed fiddling in the appropriate place and time, but please, not when playing a strathspey.

Incidentally, both these tunes are Scott Skinner compositions, not just the second one.

[ceadachrua]

@murrmac You're absolutely correct-and point taken- this would be too fast if played for dancing "real" strathspeys- but in while much Scottish music and dance was transplanted to places in the north of Ireland, the music and the dancing changed when it did. It's not a new phenomenon- recordings of older fiddlers from Donegal exhibit greatly boasted tempos to match the dancing there. Reels and Hornpipes from that area are brisk as well.

[daivboveri]

this video had a profound effect on me when i first saw it a few years ago. glad to see it up again! because of the vid i now play the laird of drumblair only in F, and wear a silver claddagh ring, :-). like my friends and i say, "what would tommy do?"

[PashaDragutReis]

Thanks for the info.

[klrietmann]

The 2nd tune isn't a version of the Laird, it's an entirely different J Scott Skinner tune, Little John's Hame. On Tommy's LP The Iron Man it's incorrectly listed as "William Marshall's," after another Scottish fiddler/composer.