[Callers] Chestnuts and Money Musk

Country Dance and Song Society has published "Cracking Chestnuts," a collection that celebrates the living tradition of classic contra dances. David Smukler is the primary author and I also contributed some pieces. You'll find detailed articles about seventeen dances, with suggested tunes typeset by Randy Miller, an appendix with an additional 20 dances, an introduction to triple minor contras, and some suggestions for how to introduce and teach chestnuts at your local series. The book (can be ordered from CDSS (it's $20 plus shipping), and David and I have copies that we're selling at our gigs. I'm also filling mail orders, so contact me off-list if you're interested. As it happens, David and I are each holding book release parties on March 14, he in Syracuse, NY (with George Wilson and Tom Hodgson) and I in Norwich, VT (with Northern Spy) at which we'll each present a full evening program of chestnuts. At the recent Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, talking about these simultaneous similar events, we came up with the idea of each of us calling Money Musk as the first dance after the break, sometime around 9:45 or 10 PM. "Hey," we thought, "let's invite others to join us!" So, if you have a dance scheduled for Saturday, March 14 and if you have musicians who can do justice to the tune and if the dance would be appropriate for your dancers that night, we invite you to join us in bringing back Money Musk. [If you're of a Dudley frame of mind, you may refer to it as "The Money Musk."] And let me know if you did, and who was playing the music and calling, and where this took place, and about how many dancers were in the hall at that time, and we'll tally the results. (Callers in other time zones, you could call it at about 9:45 or 10 PM your local time and we'll count that, too.) Note: If you're thinking of doing this, please check with musicians ahead of time. Many musicians will be happy to work up the tune if given some advance warning, but it's not something to spring on them on just before you announce the dance! David Millstone Lebanon, NH