Also known as “The Mourne Mountains,” this is a tune I have heard a million times but never bothered to learn. I finally pulled it out of my head last night and learned it on the fiddle. I like it more after learning it!
In the first clip Oisín MacDiarmad and Seamus Begley shake it out. The second tune in their set is another some LVISS members will know–The Red Haired Lass.
There’s Something so satisfying about this reel. The rolling, bouncy A part is like the rhythm of walking on a crisp, sunny morning on hard packed dirt through the woods. The B part speaks of cresting a rise to see the valley spread out below, or laughter as it echoes off the trees. Ted taught us a two part version of this tune–the most common version–at the last session, but our member Mary swore she had heard a 3 part version somewhere. She found it here:
Good on ya, Mary! Ted’s splendid version can be downloaded at the tunes page. Enjoy!
Fine examples of the tunes we learned at our last session, thanks to Ben for teaching us tunes in the “other” category!
The Chaffpool Post barn dance (also known as James Gannon’s)–
Gannon’s starts at 1:16–
Tommy Peoples’–also known as John Doherty’s (another great Donegal fiddler)–is harder to find–
A play through after the lesson begins at about 1:18–
On accordion, and played with a little flair–
Just a great tune, here played by Katie Henderson, who has a great fiddle-centric YouTube channel. She’s tuned down here, so you may not be able to play along–see Katie’s comments for her tuning.
This past session, Corey Walters taught us one reel–one really really good reel–called The Gatehouse Maid. I recognized it immediately, and Corey reminded me that it was on a really great album of tunes that I have by Pat O’Connor and Eoghan O’Sullivan called “Conversation at the Crosses.” I saw these two perform in Amherst last winter–a really great concert.
Along with teaching the tune, Corey used our extra time to talk about how phrases in the tune can be connected so as to keep the flow of the tune going. In this particular tune as written there’s a sort of loss of momentum at the end of certain phrases, and Corey explained to us how we can think about adding notes in these spots to keep the momentum going. Listen to the slow sample Corey played for us. Notice how midway through part A there’s a pause.
Now, listen to Corey’s faster version. Notice where he filled in that gap with something that keeps the flow going.
Here are a couple versions of this reel, this first by Seán Óg Potts (son of Seán Potts). To skip to the tune in question, click here.
Here’s a blazing version paired with “Down the Broom”. You won’t want to skip anything here–
Happy practicing!
Lower Valley Irish Slow Session 