Irish Music

"Christmas Eve (AKA Tommy Coen's Reel)" is a must to learn and play during the holiday season. Recorded on the "Bells of Dublin" album by the Chieftains, 1991.

Include this tune first before "Greensleeves Jig"/"Jingle Jig" (medley arranged by Jane Scott) also in Tunes Section. Chords are included but know that if trying to listen to this tune it will sound different on "playback". You'll notice that Part A is in E minor and Part B is in E Dorian. Thus, there'll be a "c natural" in the A Part and a "c sharp" in the B Part.

The Chieftains 1991 Christmas album is my favorite BELLS OF DUBLIN. I've included two of the jigs I've learned from listening to their album: "Arrival of the Wren Boys" AKA "Farewell to Lisheen" medleyed with "Leg of the Duck" AKA "Daniel of the Sun".

In February of this year 2019 an Irish fiddler from Athlone, Ireland, Aine O'Regan, visited Tallahassee. She is a lovely player and shared some jigs (Paddy's Return/The Cobbler) and a particular slipjig with us "An Phis Fhliuch". The slipjig she plays after "Banish Misfortune" was intriguing and I looked it up on thesession.org. It's been recorded by the Chieftains (Chieftains 2), Tommy Peoples (The High Part of the Road as "O'Farrell's Welcome to Limerick"), and by Noel Hill as "Boy in the Bush". It was a favorite slipjig of piper Willie Clancy.

An often played hornpipe at our Tallahassee Irish Sessions is Fisher's Hornpipe, usually played after "Redhaired Boy".

We got this particular set from the playing of Aine O'Regan when she visited Tallahassee in the early Spring. These tunes are found in the CCE collection Foinn Seisiun, Book 2.

There are two settings given for this waltz here. They are from the playing of Alisa Jones, hammered dulcimer player, on the CD "Old Time Gathering". The second setting has an alternate A Part as well as some minor changes in the B Part. There are other settings for this famous waltz on the tunearch.org site. That site considers the 1975 recording of Howard "Howdy" Forrester to be the ultimate source. According to this site it was also in the repertoire of fiddler Hiram Stamper, one of my favorite fiddlers. It's also published in Vol.

New Year's Eve was written by accordion player Paddy O'Brien of Co. Tipperary Ireland and comes from a book called The Definitive Collection of the Music of Paddy O'Brien 1922-1991 compiled by his daughter Eileen O'Brien, fiddler. Published by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Recently Bob Murphy sent me 4 Discs of recordings of our friend Ed Keeney, an Irish fiddler from Co. Donegal R.I.P. Years ago in 1996 I was awarded an apprenticeship by the Florida Folklife Division to study Irish fiddling with Ed. It was an experience that changed my life for Eddie taught Gordon and I so much about Irish traditional music and gave us many enjoyable playing experiences. My husband Gordon Scott and I began to play sessions, festivals, and party jobs with Ed. He taught us so many great tunes.