CANTERBURY COUNTRY DANCE ORCHESTRA: Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra

Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra

Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra

© 2001 F&W Records (783707429120)

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New England Square and Contra Dance music played by one of the area's root bands. A dozen players make this full rich sound. Energetic, invigorating, will keep you awake driving, spur you to clean out your garage, or dance.

tracks

1 Earl of Mansfield
2 Chorus Jig
3 Coleraine
4 Mistwold (Laufman)
5 Starr Label Reel/Ned Kendall
6 Maguinnis's Delight
7 Prince William II
8 Scotch Hornpipe
9 Glenn Towle (Laufman)
10 Reel de Jeunne Marie
11 Madame Bonaparte
12 Farewell to Whiskey/Money Musk
13 Prince William
14 Brisk Young Lads/ 2 & 6 Penny Girl
15 Petronella
16 Irish American Reel
17 La Grondeuse
18 Poor Auld Woman
19 Huntsmen's Chorus
20 Petronella (with calls)
21 Meeting of the Waters

notes

CANTERBURY COUNTRY DANCE ORCHESTRA
WITH DUDLEY LAUFMAN



This CD was named one of the top 40 New England CDs (of all kinds of music) by Yankee Magazine in July/August 2001.

The Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra is a root band of traditional New England Square and Contra Dance Music. Its LP records have inspired imitations and offshoots for the last 30 years. This 74-minute compact disc is taken from long-playing records released in the 1970s, and an out-of-print 45-rpm record made for the Country Dance Society. It is single-speed mastered by Oasis to produce this quality archive.

The musicians usually play in smaller groupings for dances around New England where Dudley Laufman has been calling dances for fifty-five years. Assembled as you hear them here, they played many places, including the Newport Folk Festival, Fox Hollow, Old Songs Festival, Morning Pro Musica, and the New England Folk Festival. Why is this music, much of it known to the American Colonists, so fresh and energetic? The Canterbury plays by ear and doesn't rehearse, arrange, and re-record. Leads are swapped spontaneously-there are surprises for the players as well as listeners. It's a happening. It's fun.

Canterbury musicians have formed or played with other bands, composed music, built instruments, played as far from home as Nova Scotia and Alaska. Although three of the musicians on the album cover are no longer living, today's orchestra has the same full Canterbury sound and played recently at the New Hampshire Folk Festival and at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Two musicians have received special honors:

Dudley Laufman and Bob McQuillen were individually awarded the Folk Heritage Award of the State of New Hampshire.
Bob McQuillen received the National Folk Heritage Award in 2002.

reviews

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  • Like good whiskey, the music has travelled and matured well.
    author: Peter O'Leary

    First heard this band on a 1974 LP 'Swingin on a Gate' and enjoyed it. I was delighted to find that they are still around and that I was able to purchase this CD, thanks to Google and CDBaby. What a really enjoyable blend and spontaneous playing of Irish, Scottish and Western European music that, like good whiskey, has travelled and matured well in Eastern U.S! I could listen to it for ever.

  • best music to set you dancing in the driver's seat
    author: Chris

    I had the pleasure of dancing to this band in the 70's. Now I keep this CD at the top of my list for "traveling music". There is nothing better to keep me awake in the car. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to escape pop music and get back to live people playing real music.

  • Energizing and fun
    author: Chris Garland

    I brought this in to work last Friday because I needed something to energize me and lift my spirits after a long, hard week. After a while, people started gravitating toward my desk, bouncing and bobbing in time to the music. It was great!

  • Fine orchestral shiraz, putting home-brew bands to shame.
    author: Richard Leining

    My favorite CD of its type! These classy recordings from the seventies never tarnish. The final track (Meeting of the Waters) really thrills me; the Canterbury Orchestra gives a pipe tune new dimensions. But all the tracks are good. I hope the Canterbury Orchestra's next reunion will develop another CD.

  • Rocket fuel
    author: Leland Stevenson

    This is an album of dazzling joy. It is rocket fuel to lift the Spirit into a deep blue sky. No clouds or ambiguities here, just gladness. Joe 'King' Oliver (different style of music) at his best could give this a run for its money in this regard, but to me little else. The sound too is excellent, much better than the sample provided on the web would suggest. If you want a bolt of energy and good feeling you will find it here. Hard to believe.

  • Essential contra dance music, infectious with good variety.
    author: John Carter

    Having lost this CCDO LP in a fire years ago, I was unable until recently to find it still available. I bought three and gave two away to friends. There are great tunes and variety, many not familiar outside NE area. This music is infectious and lingers on.

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