square dancing

Holly and Tracy talk about Barbette's identity and speculation about his life. They also share stories of square dancing in school as kids. 

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What better way to ring in the new year with a solid six months of deafening, damaging aural assaults that you're powerless to stop? Other than a bracing series of square dances, nothing I can think of! This week we learn about what would ultimately become one of the most important reasons we don't have cross-country supersonic passenger flights. We also learn about what is almost certainly the rootin'est, tootin'est American tradition of all: the venerable square dance. All this knowledge, delivered with the benefit of several bottles of Prosecco and a poop shotgun*! Join us, won't you?

*Poop shotgun does not fire poop. Restrictions apply.

Everything Halloween. Pam talks about her hobby of making Halloween costumes. Trevor shares his haunted event experiences at Hunt Club Farms in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Pam talks about an annual barn dance that she has fond memories of. The mother and son duo complete this episode by listing their Halloween favorites. 

The intro and interstitial tracks from today's episode are New Brunswick Hornpipe/Rainy Reel and Debbie's Jig/Cadeau's Jig from the Gerry Robichaud album Maritime Dance Party, Angus Campbell/Top o’ the Hill  and Colored Aristocracy/Ragtime  from Kitchen Junket  and  La Bastringue-Saut de Lapin-Beaulieu-Pointe au Pic from  Heatin’ Up the Hall , both by Yankee Ingenuity.

See the Contra Pulse website for transcripts and more.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent.

See and hear Tony Parkes in action:

• Calling Lazy H, a square, at the Scout House in 1992
• Calling his favorite square (Do-si-do and Face the Sides) to his favorite tune (Ragtime Annie) in Brasstown, NC
• Tony sent two resources for us to include in these notes:
  • A partial list  of Yankee Ingenuity sit-in musicians
  • A list of tunes Tony describes as follows: “I just sent an eclectic list of tunes I recall from my early days playing and calling. Many of them go back to my summers at Farm & Wilderness; others date from my first couple of years playing in the NEFFA Festival Orchestra. (That reminds me of something I didn’t get around to mentioning in the interview: I called a dance at my first festival in 1969 because one of the programmed callers didn’t show up. The callers submitted their dance titles in advance; somewhere I have the program sheets from 1969. There would be a set of three squares, with different callers, danced with the same partner and set, followed by a contra.) Note that not all of these tunes are of the kind I talked about: easy to play on any melody instrument. That list will take a bit more work to compile.”

Some people mentioned in this interview:

• The Square Dance History Project has some footage of Ed Durlacher calling in Central Park in the 1940s. His albums are still available!
• Benjamin Foss, the advocate of old Maine tunes Tony mentioned, has an album of his favorite New England contra tunes
• Here’s the text of a square dance calling course syllabus from Ed Gilmore, one of Tony’s calling influences
• Learn more about Michael and Mary Ann Herman and their Folk Dance House
• There’s more to say about Ted Sannella than fits in these notes! The Square Dance History Project has many resources, including dances he has written and clips of him calling
• George Marshall mentions Jack Sloanaker at Farm and Wilderness in his conversation with Julie (episode 13 of this podcast). Pete Sutherland talks about his experiences at Farm and Wilderness in Episodes 19 and 20.

Some odds and ends mentioned in this interview:

• Curious about contra dance chestnuts? David Smukler and David Millstone wrote a book about them! CDSS has made the companion video collection available online — check it out!
• Here’s a video of The Dead Sea Squirrels playing a contra dance in Glen Echo, MD in 2013

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.