Little Burnt Potato

littleburntpotatobt

Time Signature: 6.8

Key of Tune: G

Tune Type: Jig

Number of Bars: 32

Description:

Brown boys, with Daryl Maynard, Steve & Laurie Lowery, Cape Barren Island, Tasmania provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive. The Brown Boys were decendants of Aboriginals who lived on Cape Barron Island.

From The Session:

Canadian Journal for Traditional Music:
http://cjtm.icaap.org/
http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/15/v15art7.html
“This tune was composed by Colin Boyd and used by Don Messer. It is an old-time tune in that it was composed in Canada, but a commercial old-time tune in that it was marketed through the media. Boyd was Irish and a number of Irish characteristics are evident.”

Interesting link posted by ceolachan above, but seems inaccurate – the composer (or “improver” if you like) Colin Joseph Boyd was not Irish, but from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and was renowned as a Scottish-style fiddler. On the web site http://www.backtothesugarcamp.com there is a story about the legendary Cape Breton fiddler Dan R MacDonald giving Boyd an old Scottish tune which Boyd then “adapted and changed and named “The Little Burnt Potato”…” MacDonald also composed a tune for Boyd, simply named “Mr Colin J Boyd” published in The Cape Breton Collection of Scottish Melodies (1940)

Engraved by:

Transcribed/Arranged by:

Composer: Colin Boyd

Informant(s):

Collector(s):

Source Information :

Leave a Reply