As the holidays approach

[Dan Worrall]

As the holiday season approaches, we usually get a few threads with Peace on Earth and such posted on them. Nice sentiments, and of course I'm a big supporter of a traditional Christmas. But another big annual holiday approaches, too. New Year's? Nah...Boxing Day!

 

We'll be celebrating Boxing Day here in my corner of Texas not by returning shirts and ties to the malls, but by playing music--including a bunch of tunes from da man---William Kimber, of course! To get everyone in the mood (toss out that Santa junk and the over-nutmegged egg nog, and grab an Anglo), here are some nice photos taken by my friend Gary Coover in 1979. There is the old Rev Kenneth Loveless, playing Kimber's concertina; and the brass plate on the handle of that concertina; and best of all, Kimber's headstone. That is a picture worth saving; the headstone has all but melted away now, as it (and his parish church) were constructed of a rather soft local sandstone that dissolves like sugar cubes. Last time I saw that stone, in 2004, it was hardly recognizable.

 

Gary will be at our farm with a group of other musical friends, and we'll play some Kimber classics along with the rest. And yes, it will also be St. Stephen's day, so we'll play some Irish tunes as well (but no wren-killing--we have a wildlife conservation thing going on here). And old time American tunes too, to bring in the New Year right. I hope your holidays are pleasant too!

 

Dan

 

ps. For those very few who are clueless about Kimber, if you go to my website (www.angloconcertina.org) and click on the "Research Articles" link, you will find most of my book on Kimber available for free download. I think the EFDSS shop in north London still sells the complete version.

 

pps. Must revise that book someday. With all I have learned on the old octave approach to playing Anglo in the past few years (much of that is in my Anglo history books), I realize that the key nuggets of Kimber's style root directly into two-row style of octave playing, and that a good knowledge of regular two-row octave playing, as used in the old house dance days in England, Ireland, Australia and South Africa, is a perfect way to pick up WK's method, which is just a hop and a skip forward of that. I hope to demonstrate that to folks in Canberra next April at their national folk festival.