A sort of manifesto in the April 96 Folk Roots reads:

The English Country Dance Band .... feels it is time to restate some of the original thinking behind the formation of OSB - the Old Swan Band - at a time when many bands are playing fusion/experimental material with a lack of appreciation of the basis from which they are working

The responsibility for upholding an "English Country Dance" style when the popular tide (in English Ceilidh at least) is towards the eclectic and the frisson of wider influences is a heavy burden.

ECBD keep a tight focus on their material with the result that, at the end of a Ceilidh you are left with a slight suspicion that you've been dancing 'through a keyhole'. That there's a loose and free dance style there, somewhere, but you haven't quite seen it...

The CD, Barn Dance, is reminiscent of the Old Swan Bands and comes with a useful range of dance descriptions on it - as the cover says it has "full instructions inside" - and has more of a feel of teaching aid than a CD you'd put on just to listen to.

Barn Dance

English Country Dance Band, 1996

  • Three around Three / Speed the Plough
  • The Cliffe / The Gloucester
  • Haste to the Wedding / Trip to the Forest
  • Soldier's Joy / Lemmie Brazil's
  • Galopede / The Tanner Man
  • The Queen's Jig / The Basque Jig
  • Jack Robinson / Steamboat / The Swiss Boy
  • Heel and Toe Polka
  • Sir Roger de Coverley
  • Waltz for the Veleta
  • Dashing White Sergeant / Brighton Camp
  • Clee Hill / Belle Isles
  • The Triumph
  • Oyster Girl / My Love, My Love

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