Annotation:Lasses Trust in Providence

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LASSES TRUST IN PROVIDENCE. Scotland, Shetland Reel. Shetland, Unst. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Brody, Phillips): AA'BB' (Martin & Hughes). This older reel was widely known in the Shetland Islands and received additional popularity through the playing of the influential Shetland Fiddle Band in the mid-20th century. The phrase "Lasses trust in Providence" was evidently a once-common saying. It appears, for example, as the last lines in a stanza from a Border ballad called "Melville Castle" or "Willie's Gane to Melville Castle":

Then ben the house cam' Lady Bell,
"Gude troth ye need na craw,
Maybe the lad will fancy me,
And disappoint ye a'."
Doun the stair tripped Lady Jean,
The flower amang them a',
"O lasses trust in Providence
An' ye'll get husbands a'."

Source for notated version: Tom Anderson (Shetland) [Phillips].

Printed sources: Anderson (Haand Me Doon da Fiddle), 1979; No. 15. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 165. Martin & Hughes (Ho-ro-gheallaidh), 1990; p. 29. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook: British Isles), 1989; p. 34.

Recorded sources: Culburnie CUL110, Abby Newton - "Crossing to Scotland" (1997). Culburnie Records CUL 121D, Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas - "Fire and Grace" (2004). Philo 2019, Tom Anderson and Aly Bain- "The Silver Bow." Thule 214, Tom Anderson.

See also listing at:
Hear a 1954 recording of the reel by fiddler Dr. Tom Anderson at Tobar an Dualchais [1] [2]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [3]

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