'The Wheels of the World' is known to musicians as the title of both a reel and a jig. The two tunes are not related musically, and both are unrelated to the tune presented here. I learned 'The Old Wheels of the World' from pianist Eleanor Kane Neary when I visited Chicago in 1972. It is played on this track by fiddle player Larry Redican, slightly differently from the way I heard Eleanor playing it.
Ted McGraw has an amazing collection of music in his library. He sent me this recording of Larry Redican and suggested that it was 'a strange jig'. Ted doesn't know where the recording took place, and he has little or no information about the tune. My own intuition seems to suggest that the jig may be of Canadian origin. Thank you, Ted, for bringing the tune to light once more.
Some transcriptions are based on historical source recordings. More info.
]]>https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/671Ryan's Mammoth Collection, known as 'The Rakish Highlander'. Here Larry gives us his interpretation.]]>2016-10-12T08:09:19-07:00
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Larry Redican, the great New York fiddle player and composer, once told me he loved going through old books and manuscripts 'looking for strange tunes'. The reel on this track is certainly a version of the tune found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, known as 'The Rakish Highlander'. Here Larry gives us his interpretation.