Your monthly news from the New Hampshire Scottish Music Club

Volume 36, No. 9, May 2025

“Having fun with Scottish Music”

Our May 11th Gathering

Our workshop this month will be presented by Paul and Sally Wells, fiddlers and scholars of fiddle music. They will take a look at the long, complicated lives of two tunes that have had many variations over the years: “Potatoe on a Stick” and “Portsmouth Hornpipe.” For the music, click here. (Note: This workshop was originally scheduled for February and had to be postponed, and the music is labeled accordingly.)

Tune Tales

Each month our Tune Master, Alan Wilson, researches the history of the new tunes we will be adding to our repertoire. This month the theme is bridges, and the three tunes are all named for the Forth Bridge in Scotland.

Read this month’s Tune Tales and take a look at the music.

Concert Rehearsal Schedule

We will be putting on two concerts this year:

• May 10th at Bass Hall in Peterborough

• May 17th at the Portsmouth Library

The last rehearsal before the concerts will be on May 4th at 1pm at Anne’s house. For more information, click here.

Ballots Are Coming to Your Inbox

Board elections are coming up in May. Connie (Secretary) and Frank (at-large) are stepping away from the board. We are very grateful for their years of service to SMC.

Annelise has agreed to run for Secretary and Jasper will run for Frank’s at-large position. Both are two-year terms. Even though it may seem unnecessary to vote for unopposed positions, we still need to do it for record-keeping purposes, as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Once the new board is installed, it will appoint someone to the one year board-appointed position.

We also have some by-laws changes, which have to be voted on by the entire membership.

Thanks for your attention!

Join Us for Board Meetings

Ever wonder what your Board does? Join us for Board Meetings! All meetings are open to our members. We meet (usually) the first Wednesday of the month at 7 PM on Zoom. Meetings are an hour or less and we would welcome anyone who is interested to see how we run the organization. Send an email to nhscottishmusic@gmail.com and we’ll send you the Zoom link.

Miscellaneous Fun!

• World Play a Strathspey Day: On Saturday, May 3rd, join this worldwide event by recording yourself playing a strathspey and sharing it on social media with the hashtag #WorldPlayAStrathspeyDay. (Courtesy of Alan)

• The Gregg Fiddle: This decorated baroque fiddle, which dates back to 1750 and belonged to Robert Burns’ dance instructor, took a trip to the USA and made its debut at Carnegie Hall for Tartan Week. (Courtesy of Sylvia)

Back Issues of Granite Skyes

If you are new to our organization and would like to learn more about us, or you have been with us for many years and are waxing nostalgic, you can read many years worth of our monthly newsletter, Granite Skyes, here.