Annotation:Happy Acres Two-Step
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HAPPY ACRES (TWO-STEP). AKA and see "White Mountain Reel." Canadian (originally), American; Two-Step. USA; New York, New Hampshire, Missouri. D Major ('A' part) & A Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Bohrer/Kibler): AABB (Messer): AA'BB' (Phillips). Composed by Canadian guitarist and fiddler Cecil "Cec" McEachern, who joined radio and TV fiddler Don Messer's band in 1947. Transplanted French-Canadian fiddler Omer Marcoux (Concord, N.H.) played a similar sounding tune, obtained off a record in Québec, which he called simply "Reel #1 in C" [Miskoe & Paul, 1994; p. 18]. The tune has considerable currency among New England French fiddlers and is a popular contra dance tune. Central New York fiddler Chad Miller reports the tune has become a regional 'standard' of sorts, stemming from a performance by Graham and Eleanor Townsend (Ontario) at a Fiddler's Picnic in Osceola, NY.
Source for notated version: Vivian Williams (Seattle) [Phillips].
Printed sources: Bohrer (Vic Kibler), 1992; No. 19, p. 19. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 187, pp. 132-133. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 60.
Recorded sources: Great Meadow Music, Bob
McQuillen - "Old New England" (1996).
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear the reel played by Don Messer & His Islanders at Ted McGraw's site [2] (2nd tune in medley, preceded by "Grandmother's Reel").