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Contra Dan's Band
Contra Dan's is the name of the Houston band that's open to anyone who'd like to play for the contra dances. Credit goes to Mike Head for the name, for starting the original Contra Dan's, and for supplying much of the music that we use. The current incarnation of Contra Dan's is organized and led by John Bloom and Keith Holmes.
Contra Dan's holds rehearsals about once a month and always before a dance that the band is going to play. We provide sheet music for all of our tunes at our rehearsals. Many tunes can also be downloaded and printed; see below.
All musicians and all instruments are welcome. Even those who don't yet feel confident enough to play a dance or take the lead are welcome to attend the rehearsals and sit in at a dance.
Playing for dances is a lot of fun and has none of the pressure of concert music, so please join us! Email contradans@hatds.org for details and John or Keith will get back with you with specifics.
Tunes
Most of us own the Portland Collection books. These two volumes have become the standard, go-to books of contra dance tunes. You can purchase your own copies at this site or Amazon.
Many of the tunes we play can be downloaded from the web site of the Philadelphia open band, called Spuds. All of Spuds' tunes are collected in large PDF files for both C and Bb instruments; click on the link for binder PDFs for those. There may be minor differences between the Spuds version and our version, most likely in chords, but we'll cover those in rehearsals.
In the lists below, some tunes have a clickable link and will open a PDF of the sheet music. These are generally our preferred versions, but we don't have Bb versions for most of them. Tunes available from Spuds are marked (S). All Spuds tunes have Bb versions.
Here is the current "ready for prime time" tune list for Contra Dan's. Any one who plays at a dance should be familiar with these:
Jigs
- Dusty Bob (S) / Larry O'Gaff
- Kesh Jig (S) / Kitty McGee (S)
- Lanigan's Ball / Swallowtail Jig (S)
- Out on the Ocean (in G) (S) / Moon and Seven Stars (S)
Reels
- Angeline the Baker (S) / Over the Waterfall (S)
- Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine (S) / Redwing (S)
- Caliche Creek / Cold Frosty Morning (S)
- Colored Aristocracy (S) / Ragtime Annie (S)
- Kitchen Girl (S) / Granny Will Your Dog Bite?
- Red Haired Boy (S) / Whiskey Before Breakfast (S)
- L'Oiseau Bleu (Bb version) / Golden Slippers (S)
- Liberty (S) / St. Anne's Reel (S)
- Rose Tree (S) / 8th of January
- Sarah Armstrong (S - with harmony) / Snake River Reel
- Scollay's (S) / Dancing Bear (S)
- Soldiers Joy (S) / College (Sailor's) Hornpipe
- Year of Jubilio (S) / Yellow Rose of Texas
Waltzes
- Ash Grove (S)
- Midnight on the Water (S)
- My (Own) Home
Works in Progress
The following tunes are ones that we are working on and aren't quite ready for a dance.
- Eli Greene's Cakewalk (S) (in Bass Clef)
- Sandy Boys (S) / Cluck Old Hen
- Swinging on a Gate (S) / Temperance (Teetotaler's) Reel (S)
- Campbell's Farewell Waltz (S)
- Flatworld Waltz (S)