RoxbyFiddleTunes - Roxby Folk Club

Roxby Fiddle Tunes
Owen Lewis
www.roxbyfolkclub.org.au

Dedicated to Emily, the one who keeps on playing!
These tunes were mostly composed in airports, planes, back seats of cars in in my pocket size music
book during 2010. Then I transcribed them in MuseScore, an open source notation program. As the
chords have been put in on the run and without much expertise, guitarists may wish to revise them.
The Roxby Folk Club has performed a number of them and played through many more, but there are
some in the book that have never been played except by me.
I would like to acknowledge teachers, friends and the international stars who have shaped my tastes.
They include: Chris Duncan, Judy Turner, Matt Robertson, Catherine Fraser, Colin McLeod, Alasdair
Fraser, Paul Cranford, Martin Hayes, Susan Conger, John Goodin to name a few, but miss many
more. I also want to thank my Roxby Folk Club friends for trying out the tunes with me, my wife
Mary for putting up with my obsession, and to the Creator for creativity and music itself.
Roxby Fiddle Tunes © 2011 Owen Lewis
owen_d_lewis@hotmail.com
Proceeds from this book will go to the Disabled and Helpless Rehabilitation
and Service Centre in Dharan, Sunsari, (eastern)
Nepal. www.dhersec.com.np
Owen Lewis is a general
practitioner who lives in
Roxby Downs, South Australia,.
Apart from fiddling
and writing tunes, goes on
trips to India and Nepal to
help with GP training.
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
An underwear adorned rope between windows inside Em’s flat.
It would be fun if Lauren did play the bodhran!
4

The road from Roxby Downs to the mine at Olympic Dam is a bit of a race track at change of shift.
Coming down to Pharping from Dampus on the way to Kathmandu from the Terai. The road was
windy but my pencil could still do its job on the page—just.
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
The Wakefield Planes seem a bit barren from the main road, but not far away they have very reliable
wheat harvests.
Later I found that this has a lot in common with a contra tune that I must have heard along the
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cf Domestic Agitation page 26
In early December I was surprised to see the harvester out in the wheat already, on the road north of
Balaclava.
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
Andamooka is an opal mining town near Roxby. Our folk club often plays Roxby Reel and Mookie
Reel in sequence, finishing with Adelaide Jig.
There are still some market gardens, but a lot of it has become suburbia. We pass through it on
the way north of Adelaide on our way to o Roxby Downs.
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
But then I remembered the daily grind could also be for fresh coffee!
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
In the arid sanctuary we watched from a
hide, just after dark and saw bettongs and
bilbies. Come to Roxby Downs to see
them! www.aridrecovery.org.au
Melbourne airport I think!
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
Wilpena Pound is a beautiful sport in the Flinders Ranges in SA. It has a great tourist resort where
we went for a doctor’s meeting , possibly something to do with medical education. There was guy
with a guitar for a bit of a jam.
Having written a number of tunes on the plane there was time for one more.
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
Yatra means journey, so Dharani Yatra is the journey to Dharan, where we lived for 6 years in
eastern Nepal
At Mambray Creek south of Pt Augusta.
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Reels and faster 4 time pieces
Some weekend sailors delighting in their boats seemingly oblivious of the Cygnet folk festival.
A boy collecting plastic bags for a living in the streets of Dharan in Nepal.
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Marches and slower 4s
This one won a prize at the annual tune competition of the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club.
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Marches and slower 4s
Near Melrose after the fantastic season.
One of those high backed luxury ones, just right for doodling a tune.
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Marches and slower 4s
Probably served on a plane
Grand daughter Lucia knows she is not ready for bed.
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Marches and slower 4s
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Marches and slower 4s
The creek runs near the foot of Mt Remarkable and near the campsite of the Anglican Diocese of
I can’t remember what the fruitless journey was about but the feeling persists in this
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Sombre return to previous situation
While waiting for lunch in the Southern Railway Hospital, Perampur, Chennai—a teaching trip for GP
trainees.
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Marches and slower 4s
A very popular young engineer from the Philippines when she finished up in Roxby Downs and
headed west.
Starts simply enough!
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Marches and slower 4s
A town in the mid north of SA on the inland route from Adelaide to Roxby Downs
Around the bend there may be a better place.
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Marches and slower 4s
Some of us still prefer analogue.
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Marches and slower 4s
I love Gm and like to play this one after Bare Colebatch hill
The energetic and ever vigilant warden of a particular camp site regretted to inform us that our car was
in the wrong place.
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Jigs, slip jigs
On the ferry going across to Bruny Island, Tasmania.
My home town knows about jigs!
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Jigs, slip jigs
A children’s story book.
...escaping my well intentioned advances.
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Jigs, slip jigs
The domestic terminal in Kathmandu airport can be very crowded when planes are running late.
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Jigs, slip jigs
My host warned me that the mango season was almost over and that mangoes were getting expensive.
He spent at least 10 minutes choosing mangoes for our evening meal.
A place on the northern Adelaide Plains. I have never been to the races.
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Jigs, slip jigs
On a trip top China
Another South Australian country town
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As in balm of Gilead, that heals the spirit.
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Jigs, slip jigs
Hannah our energetic first grandchild!
Occasionally an air hostess’ smile is all it takes to sooth the frazzled passengers starting their
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Jigs, slip jigs
We drove back to Kathmandu with friends from Dharan and had a classic lunchtime stop.
Cousin Pippa from UK had a holiday with us, but also with other family members competing for a
day or two in her trip.
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Jigs, slip jigs
Idle time in Singapore Airport could be spent spending or doodling in one’s music book.
In Birgunj a town on the Terai of Nepal, I stayed in a hotel with a garden that had mango trees. I
could see mongeese capering down near the back wall, which they disappeared over as soon as I
made any move towards them.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
Out the plane window.
Pimba is about 70 km south of Roxby Downs where we live. It is on the main road from Adelaide to
Alice Springs, so we go there to catch the bus, or stop at Spuds Roadhouse for an enormous steak.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
Gravelly voiced lady and 2 blokes on keyboard and bass entertained us with golden oldies in a bar in
Singapore Airport.
My friend’s dad had cancer of the larynx
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
A pretty spot in the mid north of SA at the foot of Mt Remarkable. We had a family camp
there, for Mary’s 60th in Dec 2010.
I love the fields of yellow mustard in Nepal and the taste the crude mustard oil gives to the dhal bhat
tarcurri.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
Sometimes on planes, it is the turbulence, sometimes ones seat and sometimes the perceived
lethargy of the cabin crew, that delays the requisite cup of tea.
Whose birthday was it?.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
I was trying to achieve rhythmic patterns reminiscent of Irish harper, Turlough O’Carolan.
The Cooper Creek in flood is something to see!
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Three months old beauty.
Kingoonya is a railway siding town west of Pimba on the way to Tarcoola. We spent the evening at
the pub on a cold day and I did a bit of fiddling.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
My Adventurer ll travel fiddle that I take on trips to Nepal and India. I bought it in the white, from Don Rickert, its inventor
over the internet at www.adventurousmuse.com
Coming down the pass from Dampus heading towards Kathmandu we caught sight of the mountains
in fantastic panorama.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
I celebrated Easter 2010 on a visit to Nepal with friends in Dharan.
Grandiose delusions while ensconced in the Ambassador Hotel in Singapore Airport on the way to
Nepal with Mary in November 2010.
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At the arid wild life reserve near Olympic Dam we were shown how to identify various tracks like
lizards, crows and bilbies!
Our daughter Emily lives behind the tigers, well just outside the wall of the Jawalakhel Zoo in
Kathmandu. We were delighted to see her and to stay in her flat for a few days.
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Waltzes, airs and other 3s
I saw a bare hill near Colebatch on the drive between Launceston and Hobart.
I paid a visit to Nepal, soon after the death of revered Prime Minister Koirala in 2009.
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A Polka
For Mary’s 60th birthday.
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Strathspeys
A wheat growing town in South Australia named after the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.
A small kind of wallaby seen south of Hobart, docile, quiet, timid and ponderous.
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Strathspeys
The desert hop was in bloom along the roads in 2010, in swathes of ragged pink in the northern areas of
South Australia
The tree pubs once thrived and are now in sad competition
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Reels and faster 4s Key Pg Jigs, slip jigs Key Pg
Augusta reel A 3 Bruny Island Banter B 24
Roxby Reel D 3 Adelaide Jig A 24
Clothes Line D 4 Lucy's Dog A 25
Lauren's Bodhran D 4 Gave me the Slip D 25
Olympic Way D 5 Domestic Agitation G 26
Pharping Descent D 5 Heavy limbs, light heart G 26
Wakefield Plains D 6 Last Mango in Madras G 27
Beetlemin Bm 6 Mallala Races G 27
Domestic Bliss G 7 Sinsha Jig G 28
Harvester G 7 Brinkworth Em 28
Mookie Reel G 8 Balm C 29
Salisbury Plains G 8 Hannah's Jig C 29
The Daily Grind Em 9 The Hostess' Smile C 30
Bettong Burrows C 10 Hetauda Hop Am 30
Gate No. 18 C 10 Pippa's Perambulations F 31
Wilpena C 11 Singapore Jig F 31
The Final Hour Am 11 Mongoose Capers Gm 32
Dharani Yatra F 12 Waltzes, airs and other 3s
Wee Stop F 12 On Clouds at Sunset Em 33
Limey Hornpipe Gm 13 Pimba Air F#m 33
Bag Boy Cm 13 The Live Bar A 34
Marches and slower 4s Good Friday Blessing D 34
Bankok Waiting G 14 Melrose D 35
Mary My Beloved D 14 Mustard Field D 35
Wind in the Grass D 15 Until Tea Comes D 36
Leather Chair G 15 Birthday Cake G 36
Lemon Biscuit G 16 Carolian Three Time G 37
Lucia is not sleepy G 16 Coopers Crossing G 37
Sunday Sojourn G 17 Enchanting Evie G 38
Turbulence Em 17 Kingoonya Fireside G 38
Willochra Creek Em 18 Dampus Waltz C 39
Dry Run Em 18 Resurrection Waltz C 40
Resile Em 19 Ambassador's Waltz F 40
Canteen C 19 Bilby Tracks F 41
Felicia's Farewell C 20 Arriving at Jawalakhel F 41
Peanut March C 20 Bare Colebatch Hill Gm 42
Wilmington C 21 Koirala's Lament Gm 42
Around the Bend Am 21 Polka
Shoe Shine Am 22 60th Dinner A 43
Digital Devide F 22 Strathspey
Cumquat March Gm 23 Balaclava Em 44
The Warden Gm 23 Oyster Cove Paddy Melon Em 44
Desert Hop C 45
Gladstone Pubs Dm 45
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