Dugan Murphy wrote:
> Do you have a favorite contra dance written to fit a waltz tune?
The one popular waltz contra of the 1945–1960 square dance revival was Hills of Habersham, written in I think 1955:
http://www.lloydshaw.org/uploads/3/4/2/3/3423313/hills_of_habersham.pdf
The Lloyd Shaw Foundation will sell you a download of organ music for it (with or without calls by Don Armstrong). I like the music even though some might find it hokey, but even better I like “Spanish Waltz” on the Civil War Ballroom CD
by Spare Parts. That track is also excellent for the Spanish Dance (a waltz Sicilian, for which it was intended) as well as the Fan Dance / Hat Dance / Rose and the Thorn / whatever you want to call it.
Note that there is a typo on the LSF cue sheet: “Habersham River” should be the Chattahoochee River, which rises in the Hills of Habersham. LSF could use some cleaning up of the information on its download pages; many tunes are only listed
under the name of the dance chosen for them, and most musicians’ and bands’ names have been lost, even those who recorded directly for LSF (as distinguished from tracks that were recorded elsewhere and licensed by LSF; with those, the omission of names is
often the fault of the original recording company).
Tony Parkes
Billerica, Mass.
New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century
(to be published real soon)