Northumberlands moothy tradition continued

Sounds Northumbrian

Northumberland’s ‘Moothy’ Tradition, continued

Concert images courtesy Colin Bradford.

Ernie Gordon is a fine solo player with a high degree of musicality. You’d know what I mean by that if you heard him play a 2/4 march for example. Known on his recordings as the ‘Geordie Jock’, Ernie’s friend and mentor was the late, great, Will Atkinson. Interestingly Ernie plays his ‘moothy’ the wrong way round, with the bass notes to the right! He says he didn’t know any different as a lad and it just stuck. He is also well known for his McEwen’s Tartan beer can sound box invention. This clips over the ‘moothy’ to amplify the sound. I really like to watch and listen to Ernie playing, especially one or two of his own compositions.

Jimmy is also a fine solo player, but comes into his own playing in various bands. Jimmy’s style is soft and unfussy, and he is renowned for keeping steady timing. Jimmy tends to play his reels with a slightly dotted-note feel to them, not unlike the way a hornpipe is played. This tradition, which Jimmy keeps was a very popular interpretive style in North Northumberland by the likes of his friend the late Will Atkinson, and fiddle players of the past like Willy Taylor etc.

Anita James has become a very fine solo ‘moothy’ player under Ernie Gordon’s guidance. Anita isn’t frightened to play the more complex melodies, which require clean control and concentration. She has won many competitions around the local Gatherings and in my view she is quite capable of pushing the quality of our local playing to a high level.

Jim Smith has played the ‘moothy’ for years. Jim’s Berwick based band ‘Heads on the Block’ maintain the tradition of the ‘moothy’ as a band instrument. If you are wondering what’s round Jim’s shoulder? That is Jim’s mayoral chain of office. Jim is a former mayor of the grand Northumbrian town Berwick-upon-Tweed!

I’ve played the ‘moothy’ for as long as I can remember, having learned from my dad. Now its second nature to me playing solo, in pub sessions with fiddles and Northumbrian pipes, or with my band ‘Simply Northumbrian’. Mind, the style of playing has to change to suit each situation. That’s something, along with so much else about ‘moothy’ playing that I learned from Will Atkinson in his latter years. I also enjoy playing in relative minor keys; especially some of the very old Northumbrian and Borders pipe and fiddle tunes. Interestingly, I’d never heard Will, Ernie or Jimmy for that matter play those old tunes, but they sound great on the ‘moothy’. Roy Hugman.