Sombati: Tunes

Bellaire Sound, September 28, 2019. Photo by Leslie Mixon

Our music:

Tune	Recording	Remarks
Tu		A lovely habanera by Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentez (~1874-1944), a Cuban composer and folklorest. His best known composition, he wrote Tu when he was only 16!
Blackleg Miner		From Wikipedia: "Blackleg Miner" is a 19th-century English folk song, originally from Northumberland (as can be deduced from the dialect in the song and the references in it to the villages of Seghill and Seaton Delaval).
Female Saylor	Youtube	An uptempo Celtic twist on an English Country Dance tune from 1706. Features mandolin, piccolo, hurdy gurdy, guitar, and percussion. We usually pair it with Nine Points of Roguery.
Migration of Birds (Madarak Vonulasa)	Youtube	A beautiful work by Hungarian Folklorist and Musician Ferenc Sebo. We learned this from his "Pannon Freskó" CD. Wonderfully flowing tune in 6/8.
Roinn An Fhaerainn		A Gaelic song by the Scottish band Na Siaraich, from the 1974 album "The Sound of Na Siaraich." The title means "The Dividing of the Land"
Tabhair dom do Lámh	YouTube	A beautiful ballad written in the early 1600s by Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin. The name means "give me your hand." With a fantastic video by our good friend Mike Attaway.
Sherele	No Passport Required	Klezmer, this is crazy circus-sounding tune. This snippet is from the first track of our first CD. We are starting to pair it with the Gypsy Bulgar in recent shows.
Gnossienne 1	Curiosities	The first of Erik Satie's Gnossiennes. Very film noir. This is the tune that got our Eric back into playing the tuba.
Araber Tantz/Griechecher Tantz	No Passport Required	Both klezmer. Araber Tantz is in a Turkish style. Griechecher Tantz we learned from an amazing old accordion recording by Mishka Tsiganoff.
The Lark	Curiosities	The Romanian answer to the Orange Blossom Special. Here's a live recording from Dunn Brothers in Addision 23 March 2013.
Somnolent Maggie	Curiosities	A mash up of traditional Celtic and Appalacian tunes. Listen for Drowsy Maggie, Cluck old Hen, and Boil'em Cabbage Down, albiet in a minor key. Live recording from the Roots show - listen for the blender!
Lixiero	No Passport Required Curiosities	An original, sometimes latin, sometimes surf, depending on our mood. The only tune to appear on both of our CDs, we did it as a mock 78 the first time around. The name means "Garbageman" in Brazilian Portuguese.
Ef Em	No Passport Required	A/K/A The Chieftain. Turkish. We've been told our version is fairly authentic. Cifti baby cifti!
Nevestinko Oro		A fun Macedonian tune, in 7/8 (of course!). The title translates to "Bridesmaid's Dance."
Captain Morgan's Retreat		An original. Named for Captain Henry Morgan, Welsh Privateer and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. A fine Carribbean blend of reel and reggae. Its first public performance was at the North Texas Irish Festival in 2018.
Scots Medley		Medley of Miss Gibson, Petticoats Loose, and Crabs in the Skillet.
The Full Monti Csardas		Otherwise simply known as the Csardas by Vittorio Monti. We used to use the first bit as an intro to something, now we do the whole thing.
Carolan's Welcome	Youtube	An air from Irish Harpist Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). It is one of ten of his works with no surviving title. We play this as part of a medley of Scottish tunes: McKinnon Brook, Lock Levan Castle, and New Rigged Ship
Ye Jacobites by Name		"Ye Jacobites by Name" (Roud # 5517) is a traditional Scottish folk song which goes back to the Jacobite risings in Scotland (1688–1746). While the original version simply attacked the Jacobites from a contemporaneous Whig point of view, Robert Burns rewrote it in around 1791 to give a version with a more general, humanist anti-war, but nonetheless anti-Jacobite outlook. This is the version that most people know today (from Wikipedia).
Jerusalem Ridge		Composed by Bill Monroe in the early 1970s, it is described as a bluegrass breakdown. Brought to us by violinist (and Fiddle Player) Amber Gutermuth in 2019.
Inisheer	YouTube	A lovely Irish ballad, named after the smallest of the Aran Islands, in Galway Bay. The tune is modern in origin and was written by Thomas Walsh of Dublin around 1987.
Let No Man Steal your Thyme		A traditional English and Irish folk ballad. A cautionary tale for the younger folk.
Chevaliers de la Table Ronde		A traditional French drinking song. The title means "Knights of the Round Table." We usually pair it with a well known fragment from Offenbach's "Orpheus and the UNderworld" a/k/k the Can Can.
Medley: Cotton Eyed Joe, Red Haired Boy, Old Joe Clark		Gets folks up to dance every time.
Magpie Shrike		An original by Steve Mixon. The magpie shrike is native to South Africa, but has been observed to be in residence at the Houston Zoo.
Irish Marches		A medley of Battle of Aughrim and The Pikeman. Tin whistle, octave mandolin, hurdy gurdy, guitar, and percussion.
Hasapiko		Greek folk dance from Constantinople. The name means "butcher's dance" - more information here.
Valse Egyptienne	Live video!	Jazzy waltz that we learned from a Maloof's Oriental Orchestra 78, and we think written by Alexander Maloof, and copyrighted in 1944. There are references on the internet to a piano peice with this title from 1908, by Charles Cuvillier (1877-1955).
Raks Leyla (Leyla's Dance)		Another belly dance favorite, heard on George Abdo records, and elsewhere.
Tsamikos		A tsamikos is a traditional Greek dance, in 3/4 time.
Fire Dance	Curiosities	Turkish. I thought it was by D. Hicazkar, they tell me that's actually the key. Here's another recording from a practice March 2013.
Moorish Dance	No Passport Required	Our version features the hurdy gurdy and mandocello. Kind of North African two-step. Giddy-up!
Baklava Grrlz!	Curiosities	A merger of two well-known standards, Baklava and Girls of Alexandria. First track on our second CD.
Bir Demet Yasemen	No Passport Required	A Turkish ballad, this is a belly dance standard. Here's a live recording from our debut performance at the Rose Marine Theater in June 2012.
Gypsy Bulgar	Curiosities	More Klezmer.
Queja Pampera	No Passport Required	An Argentinian tango that our mandolin player transcribed from his then girlfriend's 78. That girlfriend became his wife, and we learned the tune. The name means "The Moan of the Plains." Recorded 9 Nov 2012 at Buon Giorno Coffee in Fort Worth.
Preguntales a las Estrellas		We play it like a tango, and have been pairing it lately with "Queja Pampara." Here's a recording of it from 1917. The title means "Ask the stars."
Saint Anne & the Devil	Legacy Hall, 2019	Medley of Saint Anne's Reel & Devil's Dream.
Sirocco	Curiosities	Another original, formerly known as Lox and Pepper.
The Butterly/Drops of Brandy/Morrison's Jig	Curiosities	A medley of Irish tunes. The hurdy-gurdy makes a good substitute for pipes, too! There's also a video for it here.
Zuwarah!	No Passport Required	An original, named for the surfing capital of Libya. For whatever reason our guitarist likes to put exclamation points in titles. A frequent opener at our live shows. A much earlier recording of it is here.
Farewell to Ireland (CD) Farewell to Ireland (Live)	No Passport Required	Irish Reel. The live version is a "jambox" recording (Zoom H-4, actually) from a practice in 2013. Just another Friday night down at the pub.
Tribal Trance	Curiosities	An original from our previous Tribal Belly Dance life, this tune might harsh your mellow a little as it cycles between bliss & blind paranoia. This somewhat restrained studio recording only hints at its power live. An earlier demo of it is here.
Dame la Mano	Curiosities	Our take on a a Sephardic Jewish ballad from the 1500s or so.
Asturian Waltz	No Passport Required	Beautiful waltz from the Celtic area of Northwest Spain. Also known at Waltz from Galicia, or Cau;l Chouzano. But we have been told in no uncertain terms that it is Asturian. Here's a video.<.a>
El Choclo		A tango. You may know it as "Kiss of Fire."
El Conejo (The Hare)		A tango of our very own. It started life as a balled that Eric wrote and recorded for his and Leslee's wedding in 2000. Years later it dawned on him that it could be a tango. Steve and Deb suggested what is now the parallel major part.
Balleydesmond Polka Set	Live Backyard Recording	A medley of the Balleydesmond Polka, Denis Murphy's Polka, and John Ryan's Polka. These are all on the same page in the green "Irish Session Tunes" book, so we thought, why not?
Kalamatiano		A greek dance in 7/8. We do it as a medley with a Macedonian tune, also in 7.
Syrtos		Another greek dance. This one really cooks!
A Mother's Lament	Youtube	Also known as the "Duduk thing in F# minor." We do it as a loose, somewhat mournful improv based on Belinda's original. The studio recording includes hurdy-gurdy, flute, ARP2600, and ambients from the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock Arkansas.
Swedish Wedding March		A processional, in 3/4 time. We learned it from Andrew Bird's "Thrills" CD.
Besame Mucho		Probably the most famous popular song from Mexico, written by Consuelo Velázquez in 1940. We do it as a bit of a rhumba.
Anvil of the Sun	Live video!	An original of Steve's, inspired by "Lawrence of Arabia." Eric thinks it's about summertime in Texas.
Bundy's Manouche		A gypsy jazz arrangement of a traditional hungarian "Cimbalom Chardas." We learned the tune from a record from an old friend of Eric's family's, Bandar "Bundy" Varga. Among many other things, Bundy taught Eric to play upright bass. We've also seen (heard?) this tune on a German 78 of Zigeunermusik entitled "Zugvögel," which translates as "Migrating Birds."
Minor Swing		Also in the gypsy jazz vein, we play this a little more like David Grisman, and pair it with Bundy's Manouche.
Equus Triplicata	Curiosities	A medley of three tunes about horses played on the hurdy-gurdy. Clipity-clop! Check out the video!
Nihavent Oriental	Curiosities	Another Turkish ballad. Beautiful tune.
J'ai Faim Toujours		By New York's Lauren Agnelli. We learned it from a Little Jack Melody CD.
Put Down The Device		A (somewhat) tounge-in-cheek song about our dependence on smartphones. One of Steve's originals. Bluegrass.
The Navigator		Another of Steve's originals. Steve's stepfather was a navigator on B-17s during the second world war.
The Banshee		An Irish reel that pairs well with "Put Down The Device."
La Paloma / Habanera from Carmen		These fit nicely together for shows where we need to get our opera on. People of a certain age might recognize the habanera as the "To Be or Not to Be" song from the opera Hamlet from Gilligan's Island.
Karabushka		A crazy Russian dance tune, known to many as the music from Tetris.
It Had Better Be Tonight		A catchy tune with a threatening name by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. From the first Pink Panther movie.
Charade		More Henry Mancini. From the 1963 film starring Cary Grant and Audry Hepburn. We were reintroduced to it by the Baja Marimba Band.
Green Leaves of Summer		The theme from "The Alamo" starring John Wayne. Originally a waltz, our version takes after the one by the Tiajuana Brass.
Shady Grove		A well-known traditional Appalachian folk song.
Snowdon's Jig		American roots music from around the time of the civil war. We learned it from the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Alabama Song		From the Bertolt Brecht's / Kurt Weill 1927 "Songspiel" Mahagonny. Certain baby boomers may recognize this as the track before "Light my Fire" on the first Doors album. We do it as an instrumental, usually pairing it with Mack the Knife.
Truck Drivin' Man		By Buck Owens and his Buckaroos. World music from Bakersfield, CA.
La Grippe		A Squirrel Nut Zippers tune, very fun to play.
O Sole Mio		With two accordion players in the band, we couldn't resist. Baby boomers may recognize this as "It's Now or Never."
Without my Walking Stick		An Irving Berlin tune from the 1920s. Our version is inspired by Leon Redbone.
Dance Me to the End of Love		Beautiful song by Canadian Leonard Cohen. We were inspired to cover it after hearing Perla Batalla's version of it on the Paul Slaven's show on 91.7.
Ososo Medley		A refugee from our tribal belly dance past, this is a medley of a Korean folk song, a Brazilian folk song, and a little bit of original music to glue it together.
Long Black Veil		We were having a Johnny Cash moment when we decided to learn this. Sometimes we do it like The Band, other times we bring out the hurdy gurdy.
Harry Rag		By the Kinks. Our favorite song about smoking.
Marco Polo		Traditional sounding tune by Lorena McKennitt. Based on the traditional "Mevlana."
Kolomeike		A klezmerized version of a crazy Cossack dance.
Hongu from Podolgy		Transylvanian traditional. Bring your garlic.
Lucifer Goes to the Circus		A tune we borrowed from Melissa the Loud of Djinn. Features hurdy-gurdy.
Anvil of the Sun		An original by our mando player Steve. The name is a corruption of the Sun's Anvil from Lawrence of Arabia.
Mustapha		An international hit for composer and singer Bob Azzam in 1960. Trans-continental Egyptian pop. The lyrics blend Arabic, Italian, and French. Lately we've added some of our own in Spanish and Portuguise.
Et Dodim Kala		Hebrew. From the Song of Songs. Steve sings this one.
Tuica		Named for the tradional Romanian plum brandy (their version of "white lightning" according to some sources), this tune really cooks!
The Porpoise Song		The theme song for the Monkee's movie "Head," written by Carol King and Gerry Goffin. Psychedelic.
So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo		A bawdy 16th century Italian song, we stole our version from Richard Thompson. We sing it in the original language.
A Bheith Ina Madra		Irish gaelic for "To Be a Dog." An original Irish-style aire. Its first public performance was at the North Texas Irish Festival in 2018.
Zeina	Youtube (not us)	A belly dance favorite, by Mohammed Abdel Wahab.

Some other music we've written or recorded - and may eventually perform:

Tune	Remarks
The Ghoul at the Faire	A creepy tune for Halloween by Steve Mixon.
Exile's Waltz	Another Mixon Tune
Albinoni's Adagio	We didn't write it, of course. Albinoni did. Or actually it seems that he didn't. Either way - arranged and recorded by Steve.
Fish	A Covingtune. Begs to be arranged for Junior High band. This recording will identify any tendencies for intermodulation distortion in your system.
Dar Es Salaam	Title them to a film on Dar Es Salaam that the guitarist saw in the 5th grade. From memory.
Elements	Another one by the guitarist. Strike up the fog machine.