Song
Drunk At Christmas
Source: James Down MS.
Composer: Trad.
Region: South West
Circa: 1849-1900
Year: 1862

MIDI file MP3
In the early 1980s I learned this tune from a large manuscript inscribed "James Down Oxford Mills, Ingersoll, Canada West, April 15, 1862". I have since misplaced the written music but have transcribed it here from my own playing. It's a fairly common tune in both the Scottish and Irish fiddle and bagpipe repertoire, although it usually goes by the more demure names of "Christmas Carousing" or "What We Did at Christmas". Aside from two original tunes, the rest of the book consisted of 109 Scottish strathspeys and reels, and it gave the impression of perhaps having been copied wholesale from a published collection rather than pieced together one tune at a time over the years. The manuscript was nicely bound with a hard cover by: "C. Chapman Binder London, Canada West The original is in Special Collections at the Toronto Public Library.

A Haldimand Co. Bar about 1910.
From a Glen Collection of bagpipe music.

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