“Temperance Reel” is a traditional reel of Irish provenance, known in Irish traditional music as “The Teetotaller” or “Teetotaler’s Reel” and in American old-time and bluegrass traditions as “Temperance Reel.” Both names reference the 19th-century temperance and teetotalling movements that promoted abstinence from alcohol. The “tee-” in “teetotaller” is an old emphatic spelling of total — a “T-totaller” being a complete (capital-T) abstainer, a verbal flourish from the heyday of the temperance movement.
The earliest documented version appears in the mid-19th-century music manuscript collection of County Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric James Goodman, where it appears under the “Teetotaler’s Reel” title. The tune circulated through Irish traditional music for decades before the first commercial recording: the earliest American recording is by Joseph Samuels in 1919, and Brooklyn accordion player John “Dutch” Kimmel recorded it in a medley in 1915.
“Temperance Reel” travels under several other names across regional traditions, including “Devil in Georgia,” “Six Hand Reel,” “Where’s My Other Foot?”, and “Road to Newbridge.” The tune crossed into American old-time and bluegrass repertoires through the same broad transatlantic transmission that carried much of the Irish reel tradition, and is now a regular at sessions where Celtic and bluegrass traditions overlap. The clean two-part structure and memorable opening phrase make it a workshop standard for fiddlers and mandolin players.