About 30 years ago I visited my sister in Canada and we went to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and saw a fiddle evening featuring the old and the young including dancers on stage. The food was fresh lobster! Absolutely wonderful evening my favourite moment was the old guy who was a expert gurner pulling comical faces while he played. The guy was an absolute legend.
Woo, thank you for doing this one Chris! I'm Métis, and I've always wanted to learn this one of course, but I couldn't figure it out myself. There's not many tutorials, if any online. I might be able to with the help of this video. Cheers.
Not bad for an Englishman- almost had me dancing! haha though I don’t think this is the most well known (outside of the Métis world) or first Métis fiddle tune you’ve covered- I think both of those are Whiskey Before Breakfast, which to my knowledge was first recorded by Andy Dejarlis who I believe also ‘corrected’ the tune. The Red River Jig is done in pairs. Couples do a standard step over the A chord and then a ‘change’ (a fancy move) over the part of the song that has a D chord. Mel Bedard said that in the old days dancers would want a fiddler from their community to play this tune for them we there are a thousand different ways to play it. What you guys in English call a jig we call a « first change, » so other Métis songs like Romeo’s or Jonah’s First Change are in what you call ‘jig’ timing. Btw, if you think the Red River Jig is crazy, check out Gilbert’s Duck Dance. That’s our favorite song to Duck Dance to these days. Drops of Brandy is another Métis classic we still play and dance to today. Thanks a lot and happy playing
About 30 years ago I visited my sister in Canada and we went to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and saw a fiddle evening featuring the old and the young including dancers on stage. The food was fresh lobster! Absolutely wonderful evening my favourite moment was the old guy who was a expert gurner pulling comical faces while he played. The guy was an absolute legend.
Woo, thank you for doing this one Chris! I'm Métis, and I've always wanted to learn this one of course, but I couldn't figure it out myself. There's not many tutorials, if any online. I might be able to with the help of this video. Cheers.
Hi Kenney. Glad to hear I didn't make a fool of myself with this one!
Not bad for an Englishman- almost had me dancing! haha though I don’t think this is the most well known (outside of the Métis world) or first Métis fiddle tune you’ve covered- I think both of those are Whiskey Before Breakfast, which to my knowledge was first recorded by Andy Dejarlis who I believe also ‘corrected’ the tune.
The Red River Jig is done in pairs. Couples do a standard step over the A chord and then a ‘change’ (a fancy move) over the part of the song that has a D chord. Mel Bedard said that in the old days dancers would want a fiddler from their community to play this tune for them we there are a thousand different ways to play it.
What you guys in English call a jig we call a « first change, » so other Métis songs like Romeo’s or Jonah’s First Change are in what you call ‘jig’ timing.
Btw, if you think the Red River Jig is crazy, check out Gilbert’s Duck Dance. That’s our favorite song to Duck Dance to these days.
Drops of Brandy is another Métis classic we still play and dance to today.
Thanks a lot and happy playing
Thanks Les, great info!
Red River Jig is derived from Le Grand Gigue Simple which is in 6/4
Thanks Lorraine!
Could you send me the music to learn to play the jigs please
Hi Glenys, send me an email to haighchris@hotmail.com.
Not bad for a white guy.
🤣