For this edition of the Broadside, we've transcribed two tunes from the playing of Frank Maher. Frank has been named the SJFAC 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient, and is known for his wit and sense of humour as much as for his musical talent and his contributions to the local traditional music scene. Frank's biography is given elsewhere in this edition, so we'll give what anecdotal information Frank had about the tunes.

The first tune is a waltz called Why Did I Leave South Boston. It was taught to Frank by Jack White on Signal Hill in the 1950s. Jack was a singer, as well as a fiddle, accordion and tin whistle player. Jack told Frank that the tune had been composed by a friend of his who'd lived and worked in South Boston most of his adult life; it was composed when he moved back home to Newfoundland.

The second tune, Tom Lake's, is a tune Frank learned from his mother (also an accordion player) who had apparently gotten it from her father. According to Frank, the tune was not originally named Tom Lake's; this is what Frank calls it because Tom Lake used to play the tune.