Arthur’s Ceilidh Band
“Twenty Years in an Hour” Legacy

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The musicians: The late eighties were busy times for ceilidh bands nationally and in East Yorkshire there was a thriving ceilidh and barn dance community. Prominent amongst the core of musicians was accordionist Arthur Raw. He was playing with the Green Ginger Band based in Hull and had also worked a lot with Yorkshire Garland as well as doing more Irish themed nights with his wife Chrissie. Arthur’s family were also heavily involved, Julie on whistle & flute, her sister Angie also on whistle playing much more as family circumstances allowed, and younger brother Alan on drums from time to time. There was so much work that the Green Ginger band split into two on many weekends and so to fill out these two bands and cover holidays etc other people were recruited. Amongst these were strings player Brian Swinton a semi pro player with considerable experience of other kinds of folk music.

Arthur, Angie and Brian formed the musical heart around which the “other” Green Ginger Band metamorphosised into “The Chrissie Cullen Band” after Arthur’s wife Chrissie who did all the calling. Alan Raw often played drums in the early days of the Chrissie Cullen Band until his commitments led Arthur to go back to using Roland – the drummer in a briefcase. This line-up has lasted twenty years.

The tunes and arrangements: If you’ve dance to the band you will recognise many of the tunes as being sets more or less as used for dancing just a bit shorter. We’ve also included many of the tunes which we’ve played in-between dances for listening and one or two tunes which local musicians particularly associate with Arthur. Most of them are traditional but the Woods Lane Waltz (track 8) was written by Brian as was the Pear Blossom jig (track 17), with one of Arthur’s fine touches in the ‘B’ part.

Arthur was always keen to have good equipment and this led him into the use of a midi accordion to provide a bass line rather like electric bass and chordal accompaniments from the accordion left hand. This is not so evident on the music on this album but does explain why most of the tune arrangements feature bass.

On this album all accordion is played by Arthur Raw, flute and whistles by Angie Brown, guitars, bass, mandolins, fiddle etc Brian Swinton who also recorded and mixed all the tracks. All percussion by Alan Raw except the two occasions when “Roland” crept in – can you spot them?

The recordings: All the accordion tracks were recorded in Arthur’s kitchen in Skidby. The earliest one (track 14) dates back to about 1995, track 5 was done in ’99 when Brian was learning how to multi-track whilst most were done in two batches in 2000 and 2003. In between time Angela, Alan and Brian found odd moments to get into Brian’s home studio to add parts. All the parts are recorded as live. There are no studio tricks to put things into tune or into timing it’s all very raw. Any glaring errors were corrected by the musician redoing the whole part. Eight of the tracks were on the band sampler that was done to send out to prospective clients though they have been re-mixed.

track	title	duration
1	Tripping Upstairs &Tarry Road to Sligo	1:55
2	Cooley’s Reel, Fr. Kelly’s & Drowsy Maggie	2:57
3	Mexican Waltz, Shoe the Donkey, Mrs Crotty’s Waltz	3:29
4	Caddam Wood, Staten Island, Miss McLeod	3:12
5	Polkas (Egan’s, Captain Bing’s and the Ballydesmond	2:45
6	Well for Water, Ship in full Sail, Morrison’s Jigs	2:56
7	Pigeon on the Gate & High Reel	2:12
8	Marino Waltz & Woods Lane Waltz	3:57
9	Mason’s Apron, Roll Her on the Hill, The Flowers of Edinburgh, The Fairy Dance	2:42
10	Lesley’s Hornpipe, German Beau	2:30
11	Foxhunter’s, Drops of Brandy, Rocky Road to Dublin	3:04
12	Dashing White Sergeant & Babes in the Wood	2:50
13	My Darlings Asleep, One Horned Sheep & Tenpenny Bit	3:07
14	Shashkeen & Gravel Walks	2:31
15	County of Armagh, The Sea O’The Sea & Twenty One Years	4:11
16	Cumberland Set: My Love is But a Lassie Yet, The Rose Tree, & Atholl Highlanders	4:16
17	Lilting Fisherman, Pear Blossom Jig & Knights of St. Patrick	3:13
18	Highland Rory, Kate Dalrimple, The Piper of Dundee	2:54
19	Polkas: Sweeney’s, Ryan’s & Breeches Full of Stitches	3:22
20	Battle of the Somme	3:06

Title	Arthur	Angie	Brian	Percussion
Tripping Upstairs &Tarry Road to Sligo	Accordion	Whistle	Cittern, bass, electric guitar, mandolin	Alan - bodhran
Cooley’s Reel, Fr. Kelly’s & Drowsy Maggie	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic guitar	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan
Mexican Waltz Set	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic guitar	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan
Caddon Wood Set	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic guitar, cittern	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan
Polkas (Egan’s, Captain Bing’s, The Ballydesmond)	-	Whistle & flute	Bass, acoustic guitar, cittern
Well for Water Set	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, cittern, fiddle, acoustic guitar	Alan - bodhran
Pigeon on the Gate & High Reel	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic guitar, fiddle	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan
Marino Waltz & Woods Lane Waltz	Accordion	Flute	Bass, acoustic guitar, fiddle	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan
Mason’s Apron Set	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic guitar, cittern,	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan
Lesley’s Hornpipe, German Beau	Accordion	-	Bass, acoustic guitar
Drops of Brandy Set	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic & electric guitars, cittern	Alan - bodhran
Dashing White Sergeant & Babes in the Wood	Accordion	Whistle	Fiddle, bass, acoustic guitar
My darlings asleep, One Horned Sheep & Tenpenny Bit	Accordion	Whistle	Mandolin, bass, acoustic guitar, cittern
Shashkeen & Gravel Walks	Accordion, midi bass & chords	Whistle	Mandolin, acoustic guitar
Coumty of Armagh, The Sea O’Sea & Twenty One Years	Accordion & drum programming	Flute	Bass, acoustic & electric guitar	Roland or was it Zoom?
Cumberland Set: My Love is But a Lassie Yet, The Rose Tree, & Atholl Highlanders	Accordion	Whistle	Banjo, fiddle, bass, acoustic guitar
Lilting Fisherman, Pear Blossom Jig & Knights of St. Patrick	Accordion	Whistle	Mandolin, cittern, fiddle, bass, acoustic guitar
Highland Rory, Kate Dalrimple, The Scottish tune	Accordion	Whistle	Bass, acoustic guitar, banjo
Polkas: Sweeney’s, Ryan’s & Breeches Full of Stitches	Accordion	Flute	Fiddle, banjo, bass, acoustic guitar
Battle of the Somme	Accordion		Fiddle, synth drones	Snare drum & hi hat-Alan