A New Backing Track For “Saint Anne's Reel”

I found this melodic song, “Saint Anne's Reel,” which sounds nice on the 5-string banjo. It is done in Standard Tuning, in the Key of G. Despite its popular association with Ireland, St. Anne’s Reel is actually of French-Canadian origin. The inspiration for the 1929 tune comes from a quaint French village named Baie Sainte Anne, situated on St. Anne’s Bay, near the mouth of Miramichi Bay in New Brunswick.

I redid these backing tracks to make them better in January of 2026. I'm using a MODO VST3 plugin for a realistic bass. I like a solid bass and drum rhythm to play along with. Enjoy!

• Learn To Play Saint Anne's Reel On The 5-String Banjo (by Eddie Collins)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of A, faster)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of A, normal)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of A, slower)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of A, slow)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of A, very slow)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of G, faster)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of G, normal)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of G, slower)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of G, slow)
• Saint Anne's Reel - key of G, very slow)

Here are the original older backing tracks from 2024...

• Saint Anne's Reel (faster)
• Saint Anne's Reel (normal)
• Saint Anne's Reel (slower)
• Saint Anne's Reel (slow)
• Saint Anne's Reel (woodshed)

Here is a helpful YouTube video with partial tabs (he wants $6 for full tabs) explaining how to play the song, but if you slow the YouTube speed down to about 50% you can figure it out. I made the backing track to play through the whole song four times. It's a typical length backing track. I used a MIDI bass and drums. I am playing my Cort 6-string acoustic guitar. I added an audio loop of a shaker. I used my favorite “Rattle Shake” (pun for Rattle Snake) shaker audio loop at the end. Gotta love the banjo!

Dave Hum

(April 11, 1966 - November 14, 2012)