Jimmy Johnstone

I don't know a lot about this Orcadian fiddler except that he recorded during the 78rpm era, and composed tunes, some of which are still played in Orkney today. James S C ("Jimmy") Johnstone lived at Mirland, Deerness, Orkney and probably died in the 1960s, and he is buried in St Ninian's Church (commonly called the Old Church). He recorded an unknown quantity of records for the Parlophone label, including the tunes Orkney Isles Hornpipe, Scapa Flow and Tor Reid Hornpipe, all of which he composed himself.

My Parlophone 78rpm record has the title given above "Tor Reid Hornpipe", but I have been told by Allan Jackson that it should be "Toe Reid's Hornpipe" after Thomas "Toe" Reid. Nothing more about this person is known at this time.

Other Jimmy Johnstone compositions include The Mirlands Polka, The Deerness Jig (both sent to me by Allan Jackson), and The Road to Orkney on the LP "Orkney Fiddle Music" by the Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society (1976). (The Deerness Jig, Scapa Flow and Mirland's Polka can also be found on that recording, while Scapa Flow can also be found on the LP "Going to an Orkney Barn Dance" by the Hamnavoe Scottish Dance Band (1973))

Jimmy Johnstone Material

This list of material associated with Jimmy Johnstone is compiled from the sources listed below. I would be very interested to hear of any other material relating to Thomas Shaw (email me). A more detailed list of material which includes labels, matrix numbers, catalogue numbers etc can be found here. In addition, some of JJ's compositions can be seen in standard notation on this site. Click on the [STD] links beside the tune names below.