Reel & Jig

Many horror stories exsist about the downtrodden people of the British Isles transported to the maritime regions of the new world. I will leave the retelling to the historians. But this year Carrie Rose has been a beneficiary of the diaspora at several Celtic musical festivals.

There was one in Bar Harbor & one in Belfast, and there are several more on tap on various islands about Penobscot Bay. The performers have been young and the organizers middle aged. There was been many tributes to their teachers and inspirers (if that is a word), most of whom have passed on.

The music and dance have centered on the Celtic tradition: Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Maine, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and I am sure am leaving a few out like Galicia in Spain. The performers were gracious and sincere. They praised those that came before them. It was obvious that they benefited from an education that many of the founders never had, and that they used their newfound knowledge to extend their virtuosity.

I will not feign to explain the difference between a reel and a jig. Both are spirited and both, if the dancer is skillful enough, can be danced to. Both are lighting quick and demand foot tapping by the audience. One young woman in an attempt to differentiate the two said a reel is like wa-ter-mel-on and a jig is like rasp-ber-ry. Good enough for me.

Fiddles, pipes, flutes, guitars, a few eccentric folk instruments, but not a drum kit was to be seen. There was the occasional bodhran but feet drumming on the stage provided the rhythm. It made me yearn to have been born further North to learn to clog as a matter of course, wishful thinking.

My plan is to read the history of these forsaken people when I get home in the fall, but I think instead I will let the reel and jig speak for them.

Pulpit Harbor, North Haven Is., ME