The Portland Collection: Contra Dance Music in the Pacific Northwest, Revised Edition

This is a well printed fakebook on a sturdy steel wire spiral back. From pages 21 to 223 are the tunes themselves. The rest of the 305 pages consists of introductions, descriptions, index, et cetera. Tunes are mostly in G, D, A, A minor, E minor with some tunes in other keys. There are many familiar tunes, some uncommon ones and a few I’ve never heard before.The descriptive notes starting on page 227 tell stories of the tunes, sometimes origins, sometimes backgrounds, sometimes interestng trivia.All told this would be a five star book if the price were lower. At least with the high quality printing and steel spine it will be durable.Edited to add that I do like the way the book is laid out so when playing through it there are tunes in different keys. Since many of the tunes are unfamiliar this allows me to practice sight reading in several keys just by doing the songs consecutively. The unfamiliarity of many of the tunes also includes some pretty unfamiliar licks, which are easy to introduce. Several of the songs are newer but of an old style. I like that so many of the songs are in cut time (2/2) so that the runs are printed as eighth notes instead of 16ths.

This and its companion volume 2 have become the bible of contra dance bands across the country, hence their priciness. They are just the right size (and spiral-bound!) for a music stand or laying out on a fiddle case on the floor. The Fiddler's Fake Book gets its due, of course, and has some pieces that aren't in the Portland Collection. But where else can you find dance arrangements of such Old Time mountain classics as "Shove That Pig's Foot a Little Further in the Fire." String players who accompany the popular traditional English country dancing craze simply can't do without these charts.

What more needs to be said? There are lots of fun dance tunes arranged alphabetically. Some are traditional and some have been written more recently. Many of these tunes are fun to play due to hemiola patterns (hokum bowing). They are not crowded on the pages so they are easy to read and come with a bit of history of each tune.

This book has music which tips its hat to old time traditional, but has more modern inflection and cooler chords. Not as monochromatic as trad. old time tends to be. Perfect for contra dance, because the tunes are "square" in composition. Great tunes. I can hardly wait to dig into its companion The Portland Collection Vol.2!

This book is awesome. Such great selections to learn and play. This book and volume two come out at almost every jam session. We love them. I highly recommend both and we can't wait for the third volume to be released.

A very fine collection of tasty tunes. After brief excursions into both this collection and Rodney Miller's 'Fiddler's Throne,' I am surprised to say.. I prefer this collection to Miller's.

I am a guitarist who plays in both some bluegrass and contra dance settings, and this book and the Vol II are great resources for contra and fiddle tunes. Well laid out, spiral bound for easy copying and laying open on a music stand. Well worth the bucks.

Absolutely love this collection and the reading is nice and easy on the eyes.

Just as at advertised.