Saturday 27 November 2010

Ron Gonnella: Fiddle Gems (1976)





Ron Gonnella: Fiddle Gems (1976)

01 Well May My True Love Arrive/Glenmorriston/Northern Racecourse
02 Rbel War Song/Belladrum House/The Favourite Dram
03 Well May Charlie Wear the Crown/Northern Meeting/Sprightly Minikin
04 Sitting In the Stern of a Boat
05 The Beauty of the North/Stranger in Place of the Worthies/Inauspicious Wedding Day
06 Good Wife, Admit the Wanderer/The Maid That Made the Bed to Me
07 The Fall of Foyers/The North Side of the Grampians/In Dispraise of Whisky
08 Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch/The Expert Dancer/The Merry Making
09 Huntly's Wedding Medley/General Gathering 1745/The Shepherdess/My Ain, Kind Deary
10 Hymn to the Saviour
11 My Wife Is Forever Storming At Me/The Hawthorn Tree of Cawdor/Come Lads, Now Be Ready
12 Caledonia's Wail for Niel Gow/Angus Fraser's Strathspey/Three Sheep's Shanks

This was one of the first Ron Gonnella albums I heard in the 1970s, and I realised I was listening to a very fine fiddler indeed. Originally from Dundee, Gonnella lived and taught for many years in the small Perthshire town of Crieff. Until he married - late in his life - he would sit in his small flat and listen to his precious record collection and practise the fiddle tunes for his next recording. Top Scottish fiddlers such as Duncan Wood and Gregor Borland have told me of their admiration for his skills and techniques, and I think of him as a fiddler's fiddler.


Other posts featuring Ron Gonella:

3 comments:

  1. Hi MG - great site with wonderful artists. very interested in the grand fiddlers you have found.
    The last Ron Gonella doesn't seem to want to download though.
    keep up the wonderful work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have tried both Gonnellas, and they're downloading fine for me. Could you try again, please, and report back?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ahh. must have been at my end - the downlaod now works perfectly. Many thanks
    Calliope

    ReplyDelete