The Butterfly Slip Jig

Some 20 plus years ago I recorded this track with a friend, Ken Eaton, long before I started to step dance. We were both working overseas, in the middle east of all places, in the “Kingdom” of Saudi Arabia. The most bizarre thing that happened; I ended up playing more traditional Irish music there than I had ever done at home. Once you discovered the music scene, it was easy to meet, we were all living on the same camp, no one worked over-time, there was no commute, you had no family commitments, some would say we had little to do in our spare time! Most people threw themselves into their hobbies, we formed a group and called ourselves “Get Reel“! It was my first real dip into the “performance” scene; we were regularly booked for parties and by restaurants. We organised our own gigs too, in the back garden of John Korbely’s house, complete with a bar and Swarma-man. Even if you weren’t at the gig, our sound drifted across the camp, and into the desert beyond. I have very happy memories of that time. We were a mixed bag of expats, musicians and singers from Ireland and the US, bringing all our fave tunes and songs into the mix. THEN! Earlier this year, I met Maria Monakova online, and she taught me her choreography to the tune of the Butterfly. Thank you SO much for completing this picture of music and dance. During the summer of 2024 I performed her Butterfly at every festival I attended: Folk LT, Lithuania Willie Clancy Festival, Ireland Tocane, France Le Grand Bal de L’Europe aussi en France. The musicians among you will notice that I repeat the A section between the B and C sections. That is how I liked to play the tune in Saudi; many years later I was to discover that there was regularly a “chorus“ step in traditional dances, that dancers would return to between other steps. LOL at putting the chorus in before I took up step dancing! PS - that’s 007 in the jet boat behind me - 🤣