The First Two Tunes

These are the first two tunes alluded to in my first post.

The first tune is Tom Rooney's Jig and it seems to be a tune local to the Douglastown area. It is in what southern fiddlers refer to as high bass tuning or ADAE. This is what allows Erskine to get that great syncopated droning effect on the low part. I just love the way the high part kind of soars then floats back down into the driving low part. I've never heard anything quite like it. There are a lot of Rooney's in the Gaspé. Brian tells me that Tommy Rooney's Jig was written by a woman named Mrs. Napoleon Rooney from Douglastown, probably for a son
or nephew.

The second tune is a Quebecois warhorse, the Cultivator's Reel which Erskine likely learned off of a Joseph Allard recording.

Tom Rooney's Jig :

The Cultivator's Reel :