Annotation:Whiskey

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WHISKEY. AKA and see "Rye Whiskey (2)." Old Time, Breakdown. USA, Pennsylvania. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "The whole second strain of the present version is evidently made up with a basis of material from the two final bars of the first half. Tunes in which the second part shows clear evidence of derivation from the first are not infrequent in the folk dance music of our tradition, either British or American. They reveal to us another way in which a 'half tune' (either incompletely remembered or originally only one strain long) can be eked out to produce a tune of normal reel or hornpipe length" (Bayard, 1944). 'Whiskey', with an 'e' is the American and Irish spelling of the word, while 'whisky' suffices for Scotland and England (as well as Canada). The root for either spelling is the Gaelic 'usquebaugh', which means 'water of life'.

Source for notated version: Irvin Yaugher Jr. (Mt. Independence, Pa., 1943; one of his mother's favorite tunes) [Bayard].

Printed sources: Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 35.

Recorded sources:

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