Video above is Chris Germain and me playing the Lamplighter down in sunny Key West back in 2018. We’re sitting by the pool just a block from the Mile 0 marker, so close to Havana ol’ cigar-chompin’ Fidel can hear us in his tomb.
There’s not much call for lamplighters these days, but you can still enjoy playing this great old hornpipe I got from Cyril Stinnett up in Northwest Missouri back in the 1970s. It’s another fine Victorian era piece that appears in Cole’s 1000 Fiddle Tunes (formerly Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, published by Elias Howe in Boston, 1883).
Patt calls these kind of tunes “sewing machine tunes” and in a way she’s right. Their fit for the industrial revolution with all their intricate running 16th notes and string crossings. Playing the fiddle sure beats runnning a high speed loom though.
Get my transcription of the tune in dots and TAB below. Paid subscribers can access the complete lesson video playlist at the bottom of the newsletter. It’s also available to members at patreon.com/charliewalden. For a limited time you can get two months free. See offer below.
You can download a track of me playing it with John G. Stewart on guitar from this digital album on Bandcamp. Get the whole album while you’re at it because everything on my Bandcamp Page is free anyway.
Incidentally, it pair nicely with another tune from Coles, London Hornpipe.
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