It’s the Eighth of January, a good day for some fiddling.
This recording was made in 1940, among the so-called Dustbowl Okies, who migrated west.
Oh, and I thought you were going to mention Elvis Presley’s birthday (he’d be 70 today). The classic film channels are all playing his movies all day. (grade B to C - never an Elvis movie fan myself)
Susan
The 8th of January at one time was celebrated as a holiday big enough to rival July 4. (Hear the NPR story)
I spent the weekend (including the 8th of January) at a fiddle camp–feeling very much like the cat at the dog show–and was gratified to hear that tune played during a jam session.
You gotta love a holiday that celebrates a battle in which Jean Lafitte the pirate was on “our” side.
M
I was surprised to hear this played at one of the local Irish sessions last summer. Or rather, someone started “The Battle of New Orleans”, with instrumental breaks between each verse for the tune. I’m afraid my playing of the tune owes more to the song (which was one of my first 45s when I was a wee lad) than any proper fiddle performance.
My son seems to have his PC set up so that there’s no sound, so I can’t listen to the clips. Sound seems to be turned on in the control panel, so I think it’s some kind of hardware disconnect. I’ll have to check with him when he gets home.
Still, I went up to my room (my granddaughter’s, acutally) and ran through the tune a few times on the whistle ,and then on the guitar. I normally play it out of G position on the guitar, but I find D easier on the whistle, because in G I have to half-hole the second-octave C-nat on the Syn, and I’m still not very good at doing that on fast tunes.
To me, this is one of those fiddle tunes that sounds its very best on the fiddle–preferably with lots of drones, and long-short-short bowing. I can get a bit of that feel on the guitar, but not yet on the whistle.
Hey… and another good day will be the 28th of January (although it’s an old time tune).
Here’s an mp3 of that tune but I’ll have to warn you that it’s a pretty cheesy midi recording. http://www.homestead.com/hetzler/files/Twenty_Eighth_of_January.mid
Amazing how you can try to google for: “The 28th of January”, mp3, tune.
You come up with sites with: “The opening is the 28th of January when…download mp3 or tune in for more at…”
Is there an event to go with the date?
M
For what it’s worth heres a pretty good version of the 28th:
That was my Dad’s birthday too-- we never stopped ribbing him about the Elvis thing!
Just by coincidence, I’m currently learning a very pretty slow air called The Month of January.
Wow, your dad is Elvis??!!!
Steven
I just ran across a CD somewhere (think I was cruising Amazon) that had a collection of artists.
One of the tunes was “The Month of January” played by Seamus Egan. Wish I could remember what CD it was.
Oh hey! WHat about this one?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000E4R/qid=1105467231/sr=2-3/ref=pd_ka_b_2_3/002-1104923-1741634
Ok, I did a search for Jan, 8th holiday, and found these two, basically the same. Don’t know what nationality.
Janaury 8th - Seres - Strimi, Zilagani, Nea Kassani - exchange of male and female roles
January 8th - Aspro near Kilkis - exchange of male and female roles.
Maybe Greek.
Maybe the surrender of Paris in 1871?
Thanks, Montana, I’ll check it out.
How about compiling a list of tunes named after dates and months? There’s an English Jig called The Month of May.
That way if there are any unused dates, we can write tunes to fit them!
Bagsy 29th of February! 
And there’s May Morning Dew.