Puirt-a-beul – the Scottish Gaelic term for mouth music – is a toe-tapping, tongue twisting genre of song that parallels the Celtic instrumental dance tune tradition. Heather Sparling’s survey of Gaelic puirt-a-beul offers a new perspective on a subject about which relatively little has been written, and that mostly from the perspective of the Scottish side of the Atlantic. Reeling Roosters & Dancing Ducks considers how puirt-a-beul compares to other forms of mouth music and examines its origins, its musical and lyrical characteristics, and its functions.