Who best to lead the
NYC Barn Dance Season Finale?
THE BARNBURNERS!
from Franklin Square, Long Island
This night will feature lots of contradances, squares and even
SINGING SQUARES (see notes below) !!!
The Barnburners have been playing contradances on Long Island since the early eighties, playing medleys of Appalachian old timey, French Canadian, English/Scottish Canadian, and even occasional klezmer and Gypsy tunes. The Barnburners make their music on varying combinations of fiddles, guitar, piano and string bass.
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Welcome to the
NYC BARN DANCE
Season Finale!
Square dances take their name from the square formation of the four couples who participate in the dance, and originate from English dances and French dances called quadrilles and cotillions danced several hundred years ago (and sometimes still today). Typically, the calls of its descendant, the square dance, are chanted in cadence with the music (called patter calls) or are simply spoken. Each square dance begins with an introductory figure, contains a middle break figure, and has an ending figure. The main part of the dance is either a figure that the first couple will dance with each of the other three, followed by the second couple with the other three, and so on (called a visiting couples square), or a figure all the couples do at the same time (called a breakdown). Depending on the community, squares were often danced exclusively, or were danced in threes in between whole set dances, circle dances, contradances, mixers, and couples dances such as the waltz.
TONIGHT’S PROGRAM FEATURES SINGING SQUARES. These are dances where the calls are neither patter calls nor spoken calls, but sung according to the melody of the song. Such calls were often created to match popular songs of the day, so they could be danced in a group as a social dance. Below are several you’ll hear tonight.
Just Because was written by Bob and Joe Shelton in the early 40s, but their country recording did not do well, and it was only the recording by Frankie Yankovic (to whom Weird Al is a third cousin) on New Year’s Eve 1947 that led to the sale of 3 million copies. <http://www.clevelandstyle.com/alltimehits/justbecause.html>
The dance '' Smoke On the Water was originated by Pancho Baird of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and by all accounts was a square dance ‘hit’ that swept the country in the mid-1950’s… The original song was a World War II hit written by cowboy singer Zeke Clements, best remembered as the voice of Bashful in Walt Disney’s Snow White.'' (Smoke on the Water: Square Dance Classics; Bob Dalsemer, 1982) I first heard the dance in Concord, NH at a local contradance called by Claire Mattin in the late 90s. My source for the calls was a Bob Dalsemer publication. He learned the dance in rural southern Pennsylvania in the 70s. Clearly this dance has stood the test of time!
''There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight was a great favorite during the Spanish-American War in 1898, although it had actually been written twelve years earlier by Theodore Metz, band leader of the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels. Metz was inspired to write it when he saw a group of black children putting out a fire in Old Town, Louisiana. The McIntyre and Heath Minstrels used it as a march for its street parades but it didn't catch on until Joe Hayden wrote some appropriate words for it and Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders adopted it as their personal anthem in Cuba. Jelly Roll Morton recalls it as one of the favorites of the little string groups in New Orleans which played at parties. It came into recorded jazz when Bessie Smith sang it on Mar. 2, 1927, backed by a contingent from Fletcher Henderson's band.'' - Shoenherr, Steve, Professor of History, UCSD <http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/snd/hottime.html>