Original Tunes by Sarah Gowan and Bill Quern
| HOME | CALENDAR | MERCHANDISE | VIDEOS | PHOTOS |
| tune | year | type | abc | mp3 | video | notes | |
| 10,000 Lies | 2019 | reel | abc | video | A French-inspired tune marking a depressing milestone. | ||
| A.J. & Emily’s Bridalmarch |
2013 | march | abc | video | Two tunes written for the wedding of Emily Spann and A.J. Masko. | ||
| A.J. and Emily’s Wedding Waltz |
2013 | waltz | abc | video | |||
| All the Devils Are Here | 2007 | reel | abc | “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!” -- William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Composed as a distraction during a tense week between medical tests. | |||
| Anne Drove | 2006 | an dro | abc | A tune Sarah made up when we first heard traditional French music and wanted to capture the droney mesmerizing feel of the French An Dro. Like many of her tunes, it was written in the car. | |||
| Aimlessly Here | 2020 | reel | abc | A quarantine tune. | |||
| August | 2019 | waltz | abc | Bil wrote a waltz in August. | |||
| Balance the Bees | 2012 | jig | abc | mp3 | Bee decline was on our minds. Also we needed a dance tune with balancy B parts. | ||
| Bee and Bramble | 2013 | waltz | abc | mp3 | video | A tune written for some pretty good mead.. | |
| Bellend | 2007 | morris | abc | A manly Morris tune. | |||
| Biden Our Time | 2020 | march | abc | A post election tune written while we waited for an inauguration. | |||
| Big Phat Ragg | 2006 | rag | abc | mp3 | Written for our ceilidh cohorts, The Big Phat American K-Lee Band. | ||
| Bill’s French Tune | 2004 | reel | abc | mp3 | Bill wrote this tune on our way to Augusta Dance camp. It was never officially named and got passed around as “that French sounding tune Bill wrote”. “Bill’s French Tune” is what stuck. | ||
| Bingo Wings | 2013 | jig | abc | mp3 | video1 video2 |
A wibbly wobbly tune written after we heard the British expression “Bingo Wings” for the first time. | |
| Blue Moon Mazurka | 2018 | mazurka/waltz | abc | mp3 | A slightly melancholy tune for our big blue super moon, | ||
| The Clootie Well | 2017 | 3/2 | abc | mp3 | Both of us were inspired to write tunes after visiting the Munlochy Clootie Well in Scotland. Bill generously let Sarah used the tune title for her first tune in 3/2. | ||
| Come, Let’s Be Married | 2009 | march | abc | The recessional tune we wrote for the wedding of Chloe Maher and Rick Mohr. | |||
| Concord | 2008 | reel | abc | A crooked tune that would go well with the crooked version of Cherokee Shuffle. Named for our little house on Concord Avenue. | |||
| Côte à Côte | 2016 | mazurka | abc | video | Cheek to cheek, side by side, a mazurka for us. | ||
| Cricket Moon | 2008 | schottische | abc | A schottische for the noisy crickets that sneak onto the front porch every September. | |||
| Crossing Ithan Creek | 2001 | waltz | abc | We used to cross Ithan Creek three times to get to our local contra dance. | |||
| Dance with Larry | 2007 | reel | abc | Every year at least one set in the big band Rum & Onions’ repertoire completely defeats Sarah as a player and is branded with the notation D.W.L. [Dance with Larry] at the top of the page. Thanks to Larry Koplik who cheerfully acknowledges the difficulty of some of the tunes and invites her to enjoy the music from the dance floor instead. We’re tickled to hear other R&O band members have adopted the DWL tag whether they are dancing with Larry or someone else. | |||
| Dancing Flowers | 2002 | waltz | abc | Our first tune collaboration written for Judith Flowers on the occasion of her kidney transplant. Judith and her husband Nelson Baitzel were among the first to welcome us to the dance community. We still play this waltz in her memory. | |||
| Dancing with Mom in the Kitchen |
2011 | waltz | abc | mp3 | Bill is number 10 of 11 kids. By the time he was in high school, most of his siblings were grown and his Mom had a little more free time. Bill wanted to impress a gal at school and so he charmed his Mom into sharing a bit of her new 4:00 pm “wine time” to teach him how to waltz. | ||
| The Devil’s Dance | 2001 | reel | abc | mp3 | We’re not sure who first thought the devil needed an advocate - he seems to have no problem speaking for himself. Here is a notey tune that practically wrote itself, but takes a little work to play at dance speed. | ||
| The Doubtful Guest | 2011 | jig | abc | Written after an unsettling visit with a sick friend. The title comes from the very peculiar illustrated story by Edward Gorey, one of Sarah’s favorite childhood books. | |||
| Down for the Count | 2013 | reel | abc | A flu season tune penned when Sarah thought everyone else was getting sick, but her. Then the sore throat started... | |||
| Emmaroo | 1999 | waltz | abc | A waltz for a dreamy five-year old. | |||
| Epstanbul | 2014 | reel | abc | mp3 | For our band mate & friend Steve Epstein on his 60th birthday. Steve likes tunes in Klezmer modes, so we indulged him this one time. | ||
| Ever Efter | 2014 | hambo | abc | mp3 | A hambo for the BHE (Best Husband Ever) and forever favorite hambo partner. On this recording we changed the key to Em so Bill could play it on the Puerto Rican cuatro gifted to him from our friend Craig Wilkinson. | ||
| F-Bomb | 2012 | reel | abc | mp3 | Commemorating the addition of the word “F-Bomb” to the Oxford English Dictionary. Bill wondered what a musical F-bomb would sound like, so we made a tune to find out. | ||
| Fiona’s Reel | 2001 | reel | abc | This is a cat tune. | |||
| The Fire Jig | 2003 | jig | abc | mp3 | video1 video2 video3 |
A house with a fireplace is a lovely house, indeed. The mp3 file is from the Coracree recording Dancing in the Sky. | |
| Four Forty Four | 2001 | jig | abc | Sarah sees 444 everywhere without even trying. She wakes up at 4:44, passes cars with 444 license plates, spots the 444 house numbers. It’s a creepy little quirk that deserved a tune. | |||
| Frankenstorm | 2012 | reel | abc | This is the storm of the century! No, wait, THIS is the storm of the century!! | |||
| Give Us a Fishie & We’ll All Go Home |
2012 | reel | abc | We have no freakin' clue how this tune got this title. It just popped into Sarah's head and wouldn't go away. | |||
| Glaikit Quean | 2013 | jig | abc | mp3 | video1 video2 |
“Glaikit Quean” is band mate Allan Carr’s Scottish expression for an awkward girl. This tune recollects a sweet, but very glaikit lassie we met in our travels with our band Coracree. | |
| Gundercuff.Jig | 2003 | jig | abc | A tune for Gary Undercuffler when he FINALLY got an email address. | |||
| Gogh Dog Gogh | 2021 | reel | abc | mp4 | A three part tune written for Ann and Cliff's awesome companions. | ||
| Handshouse Waltz | 2007 | waltz | abc | This tune was inspired by a sort of Scottish wedding we played for at the remarkable Handshouse Studio in Norwell, MA, the home of Bill’s teachers Rick and Laura Brown. | |||
| He Chased Her 'Til She Caught Him |
2016 | reel | abc | mp3 | "He chased her 'til she caught him" - another great expression handed down by Sarah's southern grandmothers. | ||
| Hell Hot and Heaven Sweet |
2013 | reel | abc | video1 video2 |
“Next Sunday preaching Hell Hot and Heaven Sweet!” -- we saw this on a sign at a Baptist Church in North Carolina when we were on tour with our band Coracree. | ||
| High Reach Farm | 2000 | waltz | abc | A waltz inspired by Sarah’s family’s tree farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. | |||
| The House on the Rock | 2012 | waltz | abc | video | Sarah first heard of House on the Rock from the book “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman and was very excited to discover it was a real place. We made it our destination for her 50th birthday, and had an amazing day exploring the weird and wonderful magic created by Alex Jordan in the middle of Wisconsin. | ||
| Houston, Problem Solved | 2021 | Hornpipe | abc | mp4 | For our friend Bill Houston. | ||
| I’ll See You in the Morning |
2015 | waltz | abc | When Sarah’s children were babies she made up a little lullaby to sing them to sleep, “I love you, yes I do, love my sleepy, sleepy boy.” Then she’d kiss them good night with “Sleep tight, I’ll see you in the morning.” Her attempt to preserve a bit of the lullaby turned into this silly music-hall style waltz, which is actually more representative of family bedtimes at our house than the original tune. | |||
| Ig-Night | 2013 | reel | abc | video | The Phoenixville Firebird Festival in Phoenixville, PA is best described as an ultra-mini Burning Man. A pagan night out in mid-December, it’s one of our favorite events. Bill’s Morris team and Sarah’s clogging team dress in their Border Morris rags and dance away winter in a grand parade culminating in the burning of a giant wooden phoenix. We had to miss the 2013 festival because of wicked weather, so we wrote this tune while we stayed home and sulked. | ||
| Janie Janie Jane | 2013 | reel | abc | A birthday tune for band mate and dear friend Jane Rothfield. She and husband Allan Carr have an endearing quirk of calling each other by name three times. It cracked us up and before long we all started doing it. | |||
| January Spring | 2007 | waltz | abc | mp3 | The bears are awake and flowers in bloom - what has happened to winter? | ||
| Lady Norman's Autoped | 2018 | waltz | abc | Inspired by a wonderful 1916 photograph of the renowned suffragette and business-woman Lady Florence Norman (1883-1964) riding her motorized scooter. | |||
| Little Beech Trees | 2011 | waltz | abc | A memorial tune for our sweet friend Tori. The title comes from a note she wrote about an autumn walk: “I started the walk thinking the little beech trees should just let go already... but ended the walk having learned something about knowing when to hang on and when to let go.” -- Tori Barone | |||
| Lootering | 2005 | jig | abc | mp3 | video | A jig written after the madness of Hurricane Katrina. A New Orleans resident said in an NPR interview, “We wasn’t lootering - we only took what we needed!” The fact that anyone felt they had to defend themselves against charges of theft in the wake of the chaos of that storm, seemed so brave and sad, Sarah wanted to embrace the word “lootering” and give it a tune. | |
| The Lost Mitten | 2012 | reel | abc | You might think this tune was about one of the approximately 150 mittens gone missing during 25 years of raising children. It’s actually a historical tune about an election. | |||
| Mariah’s Key | 2010 | waltz | abc | video | A waltz for Sarah’s great-great-great-grandmother Mariah Gowan. That branch of the family tree abruptly stops with her, and one day we hope to unravel the mystery of who came before. We do know that she was a very adventurous and resourceful woman who lived and died in the mountains of Western North Carolina. | ||
| Midnight Sea | 2018 | song | abc | mp3 | Sarah finally got around to writing lyrics for "I'll See You In the Morning"! | ||
| Mimolette | 2014 | bourree | abc | mp3 | A bourrée in three named for a delicious French cheese written with the delightful Ladies at Play in mind. The mp3 is one of several interpretaions of the tune that they sent us via a hilarious email exchange while they were on the road. | ||
| Mulberries in the Dark | 2013 | waltz | abc | A waltz for Anna Rain, who stepped on mulberries in the dark. | |||
| My Father’s Table | 2001 | waltz | abc | A “therapy tune” honoring the experience of being simultaneously horrified and delighted to discover what we have inherited from our parents. | |||
| Nancy in a Shirttail | 2007 | reel | abc | video1 video2 |
Some of our best tune titles came from Sarah’s Louisiana Mamaw. “Nancy in a shirttail” was her colorful expression for getting caught naked. This also happens to be one of Sarah’s favorite clogging tunes. | ||
| Nicolina | 2010 | waltz | abc | video | A waltz for Bill's first cousin once removed. | ||
| Night Geese Polska | 2006 | polska | abc | A flock of Canadian geese made an overhead appearance as Bill was composing this polska. | |||
| Northern Hambo | 2004 | hambo | abc | mp3 | |||
| Peggy’s Bend | 2001 | jig | abc | A tune for the dogleg turn in the road on the way to Peggy Leiby’s house. | |||
| Phineas’ March | 2015 | march | abc | Bill made this march to inspire his melodeon student, Phineas. | |||
| Picnic at the River Jordan |
2007 | schottische | abc | mp3 | In the last weeks of Sarah’s grandmother’s life, she began seeing and conversing with her many brothers and sisters, all of whom had passed before her. At one point, when the house started feeling crowded with spirits and memory, Sarah’s stepfather Stephen was heard to mutter, “Jeezum Crow, you’d think ONE of them could find a flippin’ boat to take her across the River Jordan.” We love to think of Mamaw reunited with her siblings, playing dominos, telling stories, and having a lovely picnic across the river. | ||
| Pobblebonk | 2007 | schottische | abc | A Pobblebonk is also known as a Banjo Frog, because of its distinctive call. This is a banjo tune, written on concertina, that doesn’t sound at all like a frog - Sarah just liked saying “pobblebonk”. This makes a nice tune for a hoppy little schottische. | |||
| Seventh Heaven | 2016 | waltz | abc | Sarah played with seveth intervals on 7/7. | |||
| Shake Out Your Shoes | 2016 | reel | abc | The morning after a serious car accident we were painfully reminded to shake the broken glass out of our shoes before putting them on. | |||
| The Shamble-Man | 2014 | jig | abc | A Halloween tune named for the undead characters in a favorite book series by Patrick Rothfuss. | |||
| Sidmouth | 2013 | jig | abc | mp3 | A jig written after spending a delightful week with our friend Jo Wright at the Sidmouth Folk Festival. | ||
| Skippin’ Jenny | 2011 | reel | abc | Sarah has deep roots in the South and can’t imagine a New Year’s Day without Hoppin’ John, cornbread and greens. On January 2, the leftovers are known as ‘Skippin’ Jenny’. | |||
| Smoke | 2002 | reel | abc | ||||
| St Johnsbury Reel | 1999 | reel | abc | mp3 | This was the first of several tunes inspired by our visits to Sarah’s family’s tree farm near St. Johnsbury, VT. |
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| Tampico Road | 2001 | jig | abc | video | Written at the family homestead in the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. | ||
| Thundersnow | 2011 | reel | abc | mp3 | video1 video2 |
A storm tune and the first track on our CD ‘Dancing in the Sky’ recorded with Coracree. | |
| Tilting Summer In | 2015 | waltz | abc | “And there, row upon row, with the soft gleam of flowers opened at morning, with the light of this June sun glowing through a faint skin of dust, would stand the dandelion wine. Peer through it at the wintry day - the snow melted to grass, the trees were reinhabitated with bird, leaf, and blossoms like a continent of butterflies breathing on the wind. And peering through, color sky from iron to blue. Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in.” -- Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine | |||
| Tori Barone’s Jig | 2001 | jig | abc | Written for our dear friend and contra dance caller Tori Barone. | |||
| Torpedoed Birthday | 2013 | zweifacher | abc | Bill’s father, Albert Quern, was in the Merchant Marines and tells the story about how he was torpedoed when he was 19 and rescued from the life raft when he was 20. We thought a zwiefacher, a dance in both 2/4 and 3/4, would be a perfect way to celebrate both this event and Dad’s 90th birthday. | |||
| Valley Green | 2014 | waltz | abc | We’ve played for several weddings at the Valley Green Inn in Fairmount Park. We thought it was time the spot had its own tune. | |||
| Waltzing on Earth | 2014 | waltz | abc | A waltz written on Earth Day. | |||
| WestGrove | 2001 | polka | abc | A happy little polka hummed during a ride home from West Grove, PA. | |||
| What-Not | 2002 | waltz | abc | mp3 |
video | “The only problem with putting up a what-not shelf is that sooner or later you’re bound to get what-nots.” -- Sarah’s mom, Susan Terry. Mom, you were so right, as evidenced by our seriously demented squeezebox tchotchke collection. | |
| What’s Yours Is Mime | 2014 | waltz | abc | video | Bill composed this tune and, looking for a title, asked Sarah what it sounded like. She replied, “Scary French clowns.” | ||
| You Got Your Henry's Confused | 2021 | reelish | abc | mp3 | Prompted by a lengthy discussion on the NorthEast Squeeze-In mailing list with the subject line "You've Got Your Henri's confused". Written on my 1922 Wheatstone English Treble. | ||
| Yunogo - The Two Russian Captains |
2003 | waltz | abc | mp3 | Written to remember the hostage crisis in a Moscow theater in 2003. | ||
| Zisook’s Schottische | 2001 | schottische | abc | mp3 | We played with fiddler Helene Zisook in several band configurations, but our favorite was in a contra dance band we called ‘Brave New Whirl’ which also included her husband Jim Speer. Fun times! |
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Like our tunes? Buy the book! Spiral Bound! Illustrated! Bonus Poems and Stories! |
Box and String is the duo of Bill Quern and Sarah Gowan
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