Having trouble with the tunes? Here they all are… well most of them, played by Stephen Wass on a Castagnari Nik (a two row melodeon or button key accordion in the keys of G and D). To save space I have mostly played just a single A and B, except where I have not! It’s also Stephen’s voice on the words.
An important feature of Adderbury is the tradition of singing in some dances. Michael Pickering in his “Village Song and Culture” (Croom Helm 1982) pointed out the links between members of the nineteenth century team and organised singing groups in the village. Certainly some of the team’s repertoire was drawn from popular music of the time. Sometimes, presumably when worn out, they would simply stand and sing a song with sticking in the chorus. One wonders if there were occasions when a musician was unavailable so the side got into the habit of working with song tunes everyone knew. Singing during the ‘once to yourself’, a walk round for the current team, certainly gets everyone in step and ready to operate at the same tempo.
Yet to be captured digitally is the jig “Jockey to the Fair”.