I’ve been a musician since the age of 7, my interests leaning toward classical and folk music. Besides the music, dance was an important part of my life. I participated in various forms of dance, folk and ballet before moving onto a career as a firefighter. Some 23 years ago I became involved with Scottish Country Dancing and loved the music associated the dance. Until that time my compositions had a more classical edge to them, but I soon felt the ethnic urge to compose new Scottish and Irish tunes.
The music has been inspired by my composing of dances for Scottish Country Dancing. I’ve written over 200 dances with 50 or so tunes to accompany the dances. My music is slightly different from the traditional but still maintains the form. The music and dances are done all over the world with surprising regularity. Canada, New Zealand, UK, Europe, South America, Africa are a few places you can find these tunes and dances.
As a performer, I still play recorder, percussion and harp. My community has a long list of fine musicians to perform with and I try to jam with them every opportunity I get. I’m hoping to produce another CD in the near future with tunes yet unrecorded.
Bob McMurtry
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