Otter's Holt / High Road to Linton

  1. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Since Jill hasn't posted any fast Irish tunes for a while, I think I might temporarily pick up the colors. Here is a set of 2 reels from our sessions. The second one is called "Jenny's Gone to Linton" on thesession.org, but "High Road to Linton" is definitely the more common name.



    X: 1
    T: Otter's Holt, The
    M: 4/4
    L: 1/8
    R: reel
    K: Bmin
    e|:fBBA FEFB|(3ABA FB ABde|fBBA FEFA|
    |(3Bcd cA Bcde|fBBA FEFB|(3ABA FB ABde|
    |faaf effe|1 dBBA ~B3e:|2 dBAF B3c||
    |:d2 fd Adfa|bfaf effe|(3ddd fd Adfa|
    bfaf egfe|defd Adfa|bfaf efde|
    fBBA FEFA|1 (3Bcd cA B3c:|2 (3Bcd cA ~B3e||


    X: 1
    T: High Road to Linton
    M: 4/4
    L: 1/8
    R: reel
    K: Amaj
    |:Ac ce a2 ae|fe fg a2 a2|Ac ce a2 ae|fa ec B2 A2:|
    |:ce ea fd df|ec ce d/c/2B B2|ce ea fd df|ea ec B2 A2:||
  2. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    I love jigs! Thanks for posting! Hope Jill is still around... just busy like I am!
  3. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Very nice, Bertram, great tunes and picking.
  4. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Thanks Barb and David!

    Errr... Barb, it's reels, actually, but I might try to post a jig version of each...
  5. Jill McAuley
    Jill McAuley
    Great stuff there Bertram! I'm still around but one of my dog's was unwell (injured her back) which took up a lot of my time. Then once she was on the mend I ended up with a guest who's stayed longer than I anticipated and it's cramped my style as regards opportunities to record video clips! I have been doing a lot of busking this summer though. Hopefully in about a month things will be back to normal around here again and I can catch up on some recording!
  6. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    I really, really like these, Bertram. Hearing your tunes often makes me wish I had an octave mandolin, but I've got a feeling you make it look a lot easier than it actually is.
  7. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Duh, my coffee must not have kicked in! Reels---sorry! In any case, great tunes!
  8. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Where do you busk, Jill? I hope you don't mind my asking, I was just thinking about where I might busk around here without getting arrested, and came up with: nowhere.
  9. Jill McAuley
    Jill McAuley
    Farmer's markets - I'm lucky that there's three of them cycling distance from my house - Saturday and Sunday mornings and one on a Tuesday afternoon (which handily enough is my half day at work!) Two of them are just "show up, set up and play" type of places, while the Saturday one is more formal and you have to sign up to play, because they don't want more than 4 buskers at any given time. I also did a Sunday afternoon gig in front of Wholefoods last weekend where I played for a few hours and they gave me a $75 gift card in payment! They had put a listing on craigslist looking for acoustic acts to play there on weekends.
  10. bratsche
    bratsche
    You are so lucky, Jill. I must live in one of the most busker-unfriendly places in the entire U.S. The people here'd just as soon call the police on you as look at you, if you happen to be playing a musical instrument in public with the case sitting open in front of you. And yet, they allow begging bums on every major intersection and highway on-ramp, with their semi-literate sob-story screeds scrawled on cardboard. It just ain't right!

    Nice picking (as usual), Bertram!

    bratsche
  11. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Thanks Jill, Marcelyn and Bratsche!

    Marcelyn, making it look easier than it is is one of the hallmarks of mastership... (cough)
    But seriously, once you get around to losing parts of a tune to make it playable on the longer scale and develop a feeling which parts you can lose without crippling its character, it is quite straightforward (Smeagol has done it before, Smeagol can do it again).
    That said, I must admit that it took me a long time. One of the reasons is that I also have to keep up volume to be heard in a session, so you might say the challenge is how to bash the instrument with all your might without crippling the character of the tune.
  12. Tosh Marshall
    Tosh Marshall
    Brilliant Bertram, I love High Road To Linton and always thought of it as Scottish. I haven't played it for a long time so I'm having to re-learn it! It's a great piece and the second section is a finger buster! Great to hear your version on the longer scale........
  13. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Tosh, it is definitely Scottish, but that doesn't stop Irish musicians from playing it. It is all Atlantic in the end. And yes, I'll say it is fun to play, once you find finger buster workarounds.
  14. Tosh Marshall
    Tosh Marshall
    I had a bash at High Road To Linton, started to lose it a bit second time around and one I will now keep working on. But it's a great tune none the less and once you get it going it's fun to play........Thanks Betram for posting this, love it......

  15. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Ha Tosh, I didn't know it's 4-part! It seems what Irish sessions tend to play (and what I posted) is just an abridged version. That puts it in line with Sandy Duff (aka Mason's Apron).
    I waited for where you said you lose it but it never came. Went straight through.
  16. Tosh Marshall
    Tosh Marshall
    Thanks Bertram, here is the four part abc for High Road To Linton. I'll have to learn the Otter's Holt!

    X:37
    T:High Road to Linton, The
    S:Sessions etc
    Z:Nigel Gatherer
    Q:160
    M:4/4
    L:1/8
    R:Reel
    K:A
    |:ceef a2 ae | f2 fe a2 ae | ceef a2 ae | faec B2 A2 :|
    |:cee=g fddf | ecce fBBd | cee=g fddf | ecac B2 A2 :|
    |:a2 a2 ef a2 | efae faef | a2 a2 efae | faec B2 A2 :|
    |:c2 ec defd | c2 ec BcdB | c2 ec defg | afec B2 A2 :|
  17. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Michael started a discussion where you can hear Otter's Holt combined with The Burren.
  18. Michael Wolf
    Michael Wolf
    Very cool with that dark sound of you Fylde, Bertram. I think Otterīs Holt/The High Road To Linton (which I have to learn) is a nice combination, because thereīs a bigger difference and motion between them than with Otterīs Holt/The Burren.
  19. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Trying out my newly-refurbished Vega Tenor banjo. I have refretted it, fitted a new head and generally buffed up all the fittings. Choice of The High Road to Linton inspired by all the fine versions here already, and I decided to pair it with a favourite of mine, Mrs MacLeod of Raasay. Tenor, mandolin and guitar are the instruments used.

  20. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    What a wonderfully honkytonk rendition with that banjo, John! I picture Donald Duck and his three nephews marching - well, waddling - down the road to Linton...
  21. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Couldn't stand the nagging feeling that I played an incomlete version of Highroad to Linton. So, following Tosh's ABC, I did the two remaining parts as well.

  22. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Interesting rendition, Bertram. I like the drones on the open strings. Donald and nephews would certainly enjoy scurrying along to ths one!
  23. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Thanks John, listening to this on the day after I am suddenly surprised how fast I played.
  24. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    I had a quick run-through of "High Road To Linton" today -- I learned the tune a few years ago but haven't played it in ages. It's a really fun reel!

    This is the same four-part version as posted by Tosh earlier in this thread. In addition to the ABC, Nigel Gatherer also has notation/tab here. For what it's worth, Nigel says "The third and fourth parts were collected by Bobby MacLeod." To me, this suggests they are non-standard, which probably explains why Bertram's initial version didn't have them.



    Martin
  25. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Clear and happy rendition, Martin!
    I found that it really does not matter that much in a session if you play the two-part or four-part version, since the A/C and B/D parts harmonically fit together respectively. I played it (4-part) with a flute player (2-part) the other week and he said he didn't even notice there was a difference between us.
    This seems to remotely reflect the confusion about fancy parts of Sandy Duff aka The Mason's Apron.
  26. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    Bump
  27. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
  28. pluckinstrings
    pluckinstrings
    Here's my take on The High Road To Linton. A bit slower...
  29. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Fine playing Jason, nice rhythm and real Scottish bounce to it. Well done.
  30. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Nice piece of picking there, Jason. It is a great tune. Reels are fun to play. I was amazed to see that it is almost eleven years since four of us posted the tune on this thread, including two from Bertram, and that I had actually played it on my tenor banjo! And we are all still active in the SAW group.
  31. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    I like it at this tempo Jason, with a few flings like John does - I usually do it faster and I have decided I like yours better, you can hear every note. I like the way your accompaniment starts and stops at just the right moments.
  32. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Just wondered, does High Road to Linton have it’s own thread?
    Really like the four parts, might have a go. Sounds like Ginny will too.
    Hmmm, I wonder what the film will be like...
  33. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    A search has thrown up 24 references featuring the tune in some form or other, Simon, but really this is the main thread that has the various versions of the tune. The other references just seem to mention it in passing. It is a very popular tune over here in Scotland, especially with fiddlers and accordion players, and I would say that it is played at some point of the evening in the vast majority of the sessions I attend at home here.
  34. gortnamona
    gortnamona
    lovely clean playing Jason, i'm jealous
  35. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Sorry John, I meant that if you search for a song title plus mandolincafe, for example, ‘Peacock Rag MandolinCafe’ from the internet
    then the first result is often the thread on Song a Week Social group.

    This is where most of the people throughout the ages have all posted their attempts, along sometimes with examples from professional musicians and notation/TAB, all of us working together.

    If the tune exists on MandolinCafe as a thread title on another forum, then that thread will be seen by the searcher, the problem being that single users or companies can use this as a sales technique to, for example, sell mandolins

    (I’m laughing because modest, humble John does actually make and sell very beautiful and lovely sounding mandolins!)

    -but it’s not that much of an issue here, just something interesting to consider.
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