Annotation:James Barry's Compliments to Hugh MacKenzie
JAMES BARRY'S COMPLIMENTS TO HUGH MACKENZIE. Canadian, Reel (cut time). Canada, Nova Scotia. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "James Barry's Compliments to Hugh MacKenzie" was composed by dairy farmer, miller, sometime printer and bookbinder, and fiddler James Barry (1819-1906) of Six Mile Brook, Pictou County, northern Nova Scotia. Hugh Mackenzie was a fiddler from Westville, Pictou County, about six miles distant from Barry's home. From the title it is obvious Barry admired MacKenzie's skill with the instrument, though he could be scornful of lesser fiddlers (as revealed in his extensive diary of 56 years).
There is a cemetery record St. Philip's in Westville, Pictou County, of a Hugh MacKenzie who was born in 1843 and passed away in 1915, which would make him a younger contemporary of Barry. No other information is available about him, and the name is fairly common, so whether he is the subject of Barry's reel is unknown.
