Record Database -- Artist Profile

Don Armstrong

Square Dance Caller, Round Dance Cuer

ID: 658

Don Armstrong began actively calling and teaching dance (New England squares, contras, quadrilles, folk, and old-time rounds) in 1947 in Florida. In 1951, Don was calling a very large and extremely successful weekly dance in the Gulfport Casino, just outside St. Petersburg, Florida. His band, known all over Florida, did square dance parties for many conventions. The Florida Tourist Board saw the possibilities in this activity and sent Don on a 13,000-mile calling tour across the South, Southwest, and into California to help entice visitors to Florida, making him among the very first group of traveling callers. Along the way, he did free dances at such places as the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, and Mammoth Cave. Don was doing a weekly radio show on a Florida station using interviews and lots of live sounds along the tour, and he swung down to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to interview Dr. Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw and his wife, Dorothy, for one of the programs.

Later Don, and his wife Marie, moved to Cañon City, Colorado. After Dr. Shaw's death, Don helped found the Lloyd Shaw Foundation, and was a member of its Board of Directors and Executive Committee. The Foundation produces recordings that include folk dances, contras, square dances, round dances, circle dances, mixers, and novelty dances.

Don contributed articles to such nationally recognized dance or recreation publications as Square Dancing, the publication of the American Square Dance Society, and he wrote The Caller/Teacher Manual for Contras, published by the Lloyd Shaw Foundation. Don was a member of the Square Dance Hall of Fame and was one of the founding members of Callerlab of the International Association of Square Dance Callers.

Don also ran the Contra Dance Holiday on Thanksgiving weekends in Skippack, Pennsylvania.

Among Don's publications are

Caller/Teacher Manual for Contras, The. Sets In Order American Square Dance Society, Los Angeles, California, 1973.
Contra Dancing. Lloyd Shaw Foundation Sales Division, PO Box 11, Macks Creek, MO, 65786. More than 100 contra dances along with pictures, diagrams, and descriptions.
Don Armstrong's Square Dance Workbook. 1955.
Don Armstrong's Reel to Reel Part 1. (Video) Kentucky Dance and Lloyd Shaw Foundation.
Don Armstrong's Reel to Reel Part 2. (Video) Kentucky Dance and Lloyd Shaw Foundation.
Don Armstrong's Reel to Reel Part 3. (Video) Kentucky Dance and Lloyd Shaw Foundation.

Dances Don taught include Back to Donegal, Balance in the Barn, Balancing Billy, Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee, Broken Sixpence, Caller's Wife, Callison Hall Jig, Calvin Crest, Caman Island Contra, Caribbean Contra, Constant Contra, Crazy Daisy Mixer, Doubtful Shepherd, Dream Lake, Duke of Kent's Waltz Contra, Dumbarton Drums, Flea Market, Hills of Habersham, Homosassa Hornpipe, I Get the Blues, Inflation Reel, January Seventh Jig, Kadie's Kontra, Kansas City Reel, Kitty Hawk Hornpipe, Levi Jackson Rag, Long Valley, Market Lass, Mazurka, Minuet, My Will is Easy to Decide for There is Nothing to Decide, Needham Special, Olympic Promenade, Ottawa Special (British Sorrow), Oyster Shucker's Jig, Queen Victoria, Raccoon Ramble, Riley's Reel, Roundelay Contra, Sackett's Harbor, Shadrack's Delight, Slaunch to Donegal, Spanking Jack, Spitfire Swing, Steamboat Quickstep, Swiss Quadrille Medley, Ten Pretty Girls, Terry Lynn's Jig, Teton Mountain Stomp, Tip Top Quadrille, Tipperary, Today, Topsy Turvy, Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Travel Air Triple, Waltz for Terry, Weaver's Reel, Whisper Ring, and Yucca Jig.

If you have any additional pertinent information about this artist, please contact Debbie.

Recordings by Don Armstrong:: Broken Sixpence / Starry Night (waltz) (comments) (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 209 / 210; Callison Hall Jig (cue sheet) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 319 / 320; Coronado Quadrille Patter, Lloyd Shaw 33; Dixie Darling / Nellie Gray Singing Call (two vocals), Windsor 4436; Down South / Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet (sample clip) (lyrics) Singing Call (two vocals), Windsor 7422; Dream Lake (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 179 / 180; Dumbarton Drums (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 171 / 172; Hills Of Habersham (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 181 / 182; Hokey Pokey (sample clip) (cue sheet) Sing-Along, 4-Bar-B 6056; Homosassa Hornpipe (comments) (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 163 / 164; I Get The Blues (sample clip) (cue sheet) (lyrics) Singing Call, Pairs 'N Squares 802; Kadies Contra (sample clip) Contra, Grenn 16007; Mack's Round / Waltz Duet Round (two-sided) -- with co-artist Manning & Nita Smith, Grenn 14009; Mountain Music / Back to Donegal Singing Call (two vocals), Windsor 4430; Needham Special (sample clip) (cue sheet) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 301 / 302; Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet / Down South (lyrics) Singing Call (two vocals), Windsor 4422; Queen Victoria / The Bonnets Of Bonnie Dundee (comments) (sample clip) (cue sheet) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 173 / 174; Roundelay Contra (sample clip) Contra, Grenn 16006; Sackett's Harbor (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 175 / 176; Shadrack's Delight (sample clip) (cue sheet) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 193 / 194; Slaunch To Donegal (comments) (sample clip) (cue sheet) (lyrics) Singing Call, Windsor 4183; Slaunch To Donegal (comments) (cue sheet) (lyrics) Contra, Windsor 4483; Spanking Jack (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 177 / 178; Terry Lynn's Jig (Come Under My Plaidie) (sample clip) (cue sheet) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 167 / 168; The Caller's Wife (sample clip) (cue sheet) Contra, Grenn 16005; The Cayman Island Contra (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 191 / 192; The Elizabeth Quadrille / The Tiger Rag Quadrille (sample clip) Patter (two instrumentals), Lloyd Shaw 3307 / 3308; The January Seventh Jig Contra, Lloyd Shaw 317 / 318; Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (sample clip) (cue sheet) (lyrics) Singing Call, Windsor 4814; Trail Of The Lonesome Pine / Floatin' Down To Cottontown (comments) (sample clip) (cue sheet) (lyrics) Singing Call (two instrumentals), Windsor 4145; When I'm With My Baby Singing Call, Lore 1105; Yankee Doodle Boy / Old Pine Tree Singing Call (two vocals), Windsor 4428; You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You / The Grand Square Quadrille (cue sheet) (lyrics) Singing Call (vocal) + Patter, Lloyd Shaw 34; Yucca Jig (sample clip) Contra, Lloyd Shaw 195 / 196