March 26, 2026 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

William Taylor’s Table Top Hornpipe

As promised, here’s another fantastic tune composed by the late Dave Shepherd, and once again, its first appearance on record was on Blowzabella’s 1984 LP Bobbityshooty. Unlike ‘Carl Wark’ I’ve been playing this one for some time, although not as often as I should, given what a great tune it is. Partly, that’s because I don’t play it either in the key that Dave wrote it in (G minor) nor the key in which it is most commonly played (E minor). However on one of the few occasions when John Spiers played with our local dance band Chameleons we did play this in B minor, and jolly good it sounded too.

I’ve just listened to this Youtube video of Dave Shepherd playing the tune with Becky Price. Under the video Dave comments

This is a definitive version of William Taylor’s and hopefully all the clodhopping, galumphing border morris teams who play this will listen to the B music and learn to play it properly. It is in G minor, so fiddlers, stand your ground and don’t be browbeaten into playing it in E minor by the malodorous melodeons (who should be thinking diatonic accordeon and not melodeon!)

Well, I could probably play it in G minor on my Bb/F box, but I really like it in this fingering on my G/D anglo. I also make no apologies for playing it rather slower than Dave. Hopefully it’s not galumphing – I think it works well at this rather gentler pace. And, I’m glad to say, I do play the B music correctly – I’m not generally dogmatic about things but there is definitely supposed to be a major chord at the start of the fifth bar of the B music (D major here, Bb in Dave’s original key).

As for the tune’s title, here’s Dave explanation:

The tune is named after a great-great uncle of mine who was the son of a dancing master in Sheffield in the mid 19th century. William earned extra coppers by step dancing on top of a table in pubs.

William Taylor’s Table Top Hornpipe

Played on G/D anglo-concertina

March 19, 2026 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

Carl Wark

I was sad to hear of the death at the weekend of Dave Shepherd, best known as the fiddle-player with Blowzabella. I didn’t know Dave personally, but I had enjoyed listening and dancing to his music since 1983, or possibly even earlier. He was a really good fiddle player, an excellent dance musician, and the composer of some very fine tunes.

Dave’s best known tune is probably ‘William Taylor’s Table Top Hornpipe’, and I should have a recording of that to post here in a few days. But I’ve always been very fond of this elegiac composition which appeared – with a deceptively simple but really effective recorder-based arrangement – on the 1984 Blowzabella LP Bobbityshooty. You can listen to the Blowzabella arrangement here: https://blowzabella.co.uk/album/2083246/bobbityshooty. In fact you can download the whole album for the ridiculously bargain price of £3.50 – if you don’t already have a copy then I can’t think of a single rational reason why you shouldn’t download it right now. And Wall of Sound and A Richer Dust while you’re at it.

I’d never actually played ‘Carl Wark’ before this week, but I checked it out in Encyclopaedia Blowzabellica, transposed it from the original G minor into a key that worked better on the C/G concertina, and while I won’t claim to have got the tune completely under my belt, it’ll do for now. Thank you for the music, Dave.

For the uninitiated (and until recently that included me) Carl Wark is a rocky promontory on Hathersage Moor in the Peak District National Park, about 8 miles South West of Sheffield.

Carl Wark

Played on a C/G anglo-concertina

Carl Wark and Higger Tor. Photo by “polandeze”, via Wikimedia Commons.

March 13, 2026 by Andy Turner - 1 Comment

Dixie’s Golden Chariot

Today I will be raising a glass to celebrate the 90th birthday of Dixie Lee, formerly Dixie Fletcher. This tune is dedicated to her.

Alan Prosser (with trombone) and Dixie Lee, May 2016.

Alan Prosser – with unexpected trombone! – and Dixie Lee, May 2016.

Back in the 1970s Dixie was the organiser of the renowned folk club Duke’s Folk, which ran on a Sunday night at the Duke of Cumberland in Whitstable. That club was a veritable hotbed of talent, including among its regulars Fiddler’s Dram, and the members of the Oyster Ceilidh Band. Dixie was also involved in organising the annual Whitstable May Day celebrations, based on a revival of the old Jack-in-the-Green custom which had died out in Whitstable round about 1912. And Dixie has been involved in the event every year since then – even during lockdown a small socially distanced event took place – right up to last year, when I was very happy to be one of the hundreds of people celebrating the 50th Whitstable May Day.

I can never quite work out if I first went in 1976 or 1977, although I think the latter year is more likely. I definitely first danced in the procession in 1979, which was my first year with Oyster Morris. And would have done so from then until 1987, shortly before moving away from Kent. The May Day weekend was the highlight of the Oyster Morris year, and a key part of this was the May Monday procession – all the way from the East Kent pub at one end of the town, via the Horsebridge where the Jack first makes his appearance, on to Whitstable Castle and Gardens at the other end of town. Google Maps says it’s only 1 mile, but it definitely feels much further than that when you’re dancing!

I returned for Oyster Morris’ 40th anniversary in 2016 (the Whitstable May Day predates Oyster by a year) and played in the procession. This was the first time I’d been a musician rather than a dancer. And I returned again as a musician last year. Typically for a Bank Holiday Monday, the weather was not especially kind. In fact for much of the route I wore a big waterproof poncho to keep myself and, more importantly, my concertina, dry. But as the road began to slope gently upwards towards the castle gardens the sun finally came out. I turned around to see that Dixie was just behind the musicians riding in her chariot (“mobility scooter” seems an insufficiently grand term). The sun shone bright, and Dixie, at the heart of the procession, as she had been for 50 years, was simply beaming, with a smile from ear to ear. It was a magical moment, deserving of being memorialised in a tune. And if Dixie felt a certain pride at having helped to start this tradition, and having promoted and nurtured it over so many years, then that pride was entirely justified.

Driving home that afternoon, I had bits of a tune going round my head, and eventually they settled into a 32 bar jig. Having no obvious way of recording the tune, I just had to keep singing it in my head until we got home and I was able to jot it down. And here it is.

X:74
T: Dixie’s Golden Chariot
C: © Andy Turner, 5th May 2025
N: Composed 5th May 2025 on the drive home from the 50th Whitstable May Day celebrations.
N: Dedicated to Dixie Lee.
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:D
ABc def | g2e cBA | A2A AEF | GFG A2A | ABc def |
g2 e cBA | faf gec | ABc d3 :||:faf geg | fdf ecA |
d2d fed | Bcd e2f | g2g fed | Bcd ecA | dfa gec | ABc d3 :|]

Dixie with the Jack-in-the-Green at the front of the Whitstable May Day procession, 2023. Photograph by Tim Hinchcliffe, from the Whitstable Jack in the Green FaceBook page.

Dixie being saluted by the Jack’s attendants, Duke of Cumberland, 2025. Photo by Tim Hinchcliffe.

Dixie’s Golden Chariot

Played on G/D anglo-concertina