This version of ‘Dear Tobacco’ is from the Anne Geddes Gilchrist collection, collected from William Docker in Westmorland, England. I can’t find a date for it, but John Offord (always a good source of knowledge) says it is “not a polka. Polkas came later in the 1840’s. It is a type of reel which is found in books from the 1700’s. These tunes, with patterns of 4 semi-quavers [written out here as quavers] were only played in Scotland or Northern England”. This version is also in Dave Townsend’s English Dance Music book, Volume 2.
Here are the dots for the tune:
I’ve written out a seperate chord chart below (with an extra Bm chord, apologies!) with an alternative, slightly crunchier version that doesn’t resolve at all.
I suggest we start with this tune and then go into the Duke of Perth’s reel . I’ve created a page called Tune Sets where I’ll add PDFs of sets, to make it easier to put everything together.
Deborah is a violinist and violist specialising in English folk music. She trained in viola and Baroque viola at Birmingham Conservatoire, before returning to her first love of traditional music, song and dance.
Deborah has developed a passion for playing for dancing since joining her first ceilidh band at age 13. She is a member of Stepling, a band performing English music, step-dance, song and percussion, and also plays with Folk Dance Remixed, a dance company combining traditional dance with hip hop and street dance styles, with whom she has performed as such events as Car Fest, the Southbank's Festival of Love and Glasgow's Commonwealth Games Festival.
Deborah records on a regular basis for a number of people, including The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra, and for Laurel Swift's 'Travelling with Thomas' musical.
She teaches music, song and dance regularly for The English Folk Dance and Song Society, as well as on a freelance basis for various workshop series, festivals and music services. Deborah recently completed The Teaching Musician MA degree course at Trinity Laban, graduating with Distinction.
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New Ealing Sessions 