The Lasses of Stewarton
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Lasses of Stewarton", also known as "Lasses of Stewartown/Stewington/Stuarton",<br> "Da Cross Reel" (Shetland), "The Humors of Williamstown" or "Over the Isles to America"<br> is a Scottish and Canadian reel in D Mixolydian. The parts are played AABBCCD (Athole,<br> Gow, Lowe) or AABBCCDD' (Kerr, MacDonald).<br> This version is from MacDonald's The Skye Collection.<br> It is another tune commemorating an area's local girls.<br> John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Edinburgh<br> publisher Neil Stewart's Collection of Newest and Best Reels or Country<br> Dances (1761). It was published again by Stewart in an edition of 1775, then<br> subsequently appears in several later publications. A version was entered into<br> the large 1840 music manuscript collection of John Rook (Waverton, Cumbria).<br> It is related to the Shetland tune<br> "Da Cross Reel"<br> a somewhat "crooked" (asymmetrical) version of this tune with only six measures in the last part.<br> The first sound recording of the tune was probably that by The Cameron Men on a<br> 78RPM record for Edison Bell in London.<br> It is a very popular old reel among Cape Breton fiddlers and frequently recorded.<br> It was printed in Campbell's 9th Book of New and Favorite Country Dances &<br> Strathspey Reels (1795),<br> Gow's Complete Repository, Part 1 (1799),<br> John Gow's A Favorite Collection of Slow Airs, Strathspeys and Reels (c. 1804),<br> Kerr's Merry Melodies, vol. 3 (c. 1880's),<br> Joseph Lowe's Lowe's Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs, book 5 (1844-45),<br> MacDonald's The Skye Collection (1887) and<br> Stewart-Robertson's The Athole Collection (1884).<br> It was recorded by Natalie MacMaster on Fit as a Fiddle (1993),<br> Brenda Stubbert (Cape Breton) on In Jig Time! (1995),<br> Alex Francis MacKay with Gordon MacLean on Gaelic in the Bow (2005) and<br> Ronan Martin on Ronan Martin (2008).<br> <br>
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