Episode 23 - Tony Parkes

Contra Pulse

The intro and interstitial tracks from today's episode are New Brunswick Hornpipe/Rainy Reel and Debbie's Jig/Cadeau's Jig from the Gerry Robichaud album Maritime Dance Party, Angus Campbell/Top o’ the Hill and Colored Aristocracy/Ragtime from Kitchen Junket and La Bastringue-Saut de Lapin-Beaulieu-Pointe au Pic from Heatin’ Up the Hall , both by Yankee Ingenuity.

See the Contra Pulse website for transcripts and more.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent.

See and hear Tony Parkes in action:

• Calling Lazy H, a square, at the Scout House in 1992
• Calling his favorite square (Do-si-do and Face the Sides) to his favorite tune (Ragtime Annie) in Brasstown, NC
• Tony sent two resources for us to include in these notes:
  • A partial list of Yankee Ingenuity sit-in musicians
  • A list of tunes Tony describes as follows: “I just sent an eclectic list of tunes I recall from my early days playing and calling. Many of them go back to my summers at Farm & Wilderness; others date from my first couple of years playing in the NEFFA Festival Orchestra. (That reminds me of something I didn’t get around to mentioning in the interview: I called a dance at my first festival in 1969 because one of the programmed callers didn’t show up. The callers submitted their dance titles in advance; somewhere I have the program sheets from 1969. There would be a set of three squares, with different callers, danced with the same partner and set, followed by a contra.) Note that not all of these tunes are of the kind I talked about: easy to play on any melody instrument. That list will take a bit more work to compile.”

Some people mentioned in this interview:

• The Square Dance History Project has some footage of Ed Durlacher calling in Central Park in the 1940s. His albums are still available!
• Benjamin Foss, the advocate of old Maine tunes Tony mentioned, has an album of his favorite New England contra tunes
• Here’s the text of a square dance calling course syllabus from Ed Gilmore, one of Tony’s calling influences
• Learn more about Michael and Mary Ann Herman and their Folk Dance House
• There’s more to say about Ted Sannella than fits in these notes! The Square Dance History Project has many resources, including dances he has written and clips of him calling
• George Marshall mentions Jack Sloanaker at Farm and Wilderness in his conversation with Julie (episode 13 of this podcast). Pete Sutherland talks about his experiences at Farm and Wilderness in Episodes 19 and 20.

Some odds and ends mentioned in this interview:

• Curious about contra dance chestnuts? David Smukler and David Millstone wrote a book about them! CDSS has made the companion video collection available online — check it out!
• Here’s a video of The Dead Sea Squirrels playing a contra dance in Glen Echo, MD in 2013