Annotation:Westville Polka

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WESTVILLE POLKA, THE. AKA and see "Macdougall's Polka." American, Polka. USA, Pennsylvania. In the repertoire of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, fiddler Jehile Kirkhuff, who played it in response to a request for a ‘local’ tune rather than one he learned from a collection. Joel Shimberg, who collected from Kirkhuff, says that the fiddler lost his sight in his teens but played quite slowly and clearly, often tunes from Cole’s 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940). “For years he traveled a few circuits in Pennsylvania and New York, where people looked forward to the next square dance he would play.” Shimberg finds a version of this tune was played by Missouri fiddler Joe Politte, but in fact it is a well-traveled melody that is also played in Maine and New Brunswick under various titles.

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