Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on July 25th 2002 by MichaelBolton.
This tune has been added to 422 tunebooks.
Also known as Fateful Head, Spoot Askerry, The Spoot O' Skerry, Spootaskerry, Spootis Kerry, Spootiskerry.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Spoot O' Skerry
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
DE | G2 DE GDEG | DEGA B2 AB | G2 DE GABd |eged B2 AB |
G2 DE GDEG | DEGA B2 AB | g2 ed edBA | B2 G2 G2 :|
ef | g2 ed ed B2 | BABG E2 DE | GABd eged | B2 A2 A2 ef |
g2 ed ed B2 | BABG E2 DE | GABd eged | B2 G2 G2 ef |
g2 ed ed B2 | BABG E2 DE | GABd eged | B2 A2 A2 DE|
G2 DE GDEG | DEGA B2 AB | g2 ed edBA |B2 GB G2 ||
Spoot O'Skerry
This is a reel, not a hornpipe. Works well on the whistle in "A", (but the fiddlers didn't like it!)
# Posted on July 25th 2002 by Kenny
Works well on the whistle in G too. I think it's by a Shetland fiddler called Burns (no relation). A great tune if you like syncopation. You wouldn't play it in a Comhaltas session, though.
# Posted on July 30th 2002 by CreadurMawnOrganig
My husband and I introduced it to one of the local Comhaltas sessions as a Shetland tune by Samuel Ian Rothmar Burns and now they are requesting we play it each time we attend. Are they breaking the rules? They do have a playlist, but other tunes there seem to be allowed.
# Posted on August 1st 2002 by vonnieestes
Well , I'm only going on hearsay - perhaps they're more tolerant than I think.
# Posted on August 2nd 2002 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Spootiskerry
This reel was composed by Shetland fiddler Samuel Ian Rothmar Burns (Ian Burns for short) in 1980. Spootiskerry, as it is more appropriately named, is the name of a farm in the Burns family. A "skerry" is a group of rocks which is covered by the sea, but can sometimes be visible depending on the tide. At the session I attend, we play this tune with Reel de Montr
# Posted on August 3rd 2002 by SPeak
This is a quite popular session tune in Scotland: in fact, almost all the Scottish musicians know it. Just like an Irish tune the High Reel, it's a fun to play very fast with other players.
# Posted on September 22nd 2002 by slainte
Spootiskerry
A magic tune. The correct title is "Spootiskerry" (as noted by SPeak). Very popular in sessions in the northeast of England. It was recorded by Northumbrian concertina virtuoso Alistair Anderson's band Syncopace in c. 1995.
# Posted on September 17th 2005 by SiGarb
See also
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/1655
# Posted on December 25th 2005 by gian marco
Da Fitful Head
The (in Shetland dialect, "Da") Fitful Head is a high bluff with steep drops to the sea at the south end of the Mainland island of the Shetland group. I don't know if the name means "fateful" or has some other meaning. Anyway, I learned the tune as "The Fateful Head", which obviously refers to the place I have described - whatever the original, or correct, name of the tune may be.
# Posted on August 5th 2006 by nicholas
As SPeak says: Spootiskerry = name of farm; skerry = sea-covered group of rocks. To add: spoot = razor clam
# Posted on March 10th 2007 by ethical blend
Spootiskerry
I have a copy of Ian Burns's tunebook, which is called "Spootiskerry". There's also a photo of the composer at Spootiskerry looking across to the town of Brae.
In the Introduction he says, "Spootiskerry - the croft belonging to my late grand aunts, Bella and Joan Nicolson, situated between the village of Sullom, and the new town of Brae. Originally spelt Spootskerry, but as the years have passed, and "i" or an "a", and sometimes an "o" have been added... I have named my book Spootiskerry as that was the name I gave my first composition."
# Posted on November 27th 2011 by nigelg
I used to ken Ian Burns - ordered many a copy of his book. A fine fiddle player he was too, though he could play several other instruments.
The spoot (as EB says, a razor clam) is one of the varieties of 'ebb meat' that is enjoyed in the northern isles. It gets its name, apparently, because it 'spoots' (spouts) when you walk above its hiding place under the sand. This is the way to detect them when you are fishing for them. You walk backwards over the shore and when you see the spoot spoot, you use a long knife to dig it up. My old neighbour, when I stayed up north, told me that you would lay out a dozen spoots on top of the Rayburn, and by the time you've put down the last one, the first one is ready. Roof gutters are also called spoots (similar shape) and gutter is mud.
# Posted on November 28th 2011 by Weejie