hi guys,
im currently putting together a wedding band here in Kerry and would gratefully appreciate suggestions for polkas used in the Siege of Ennis set - are there standard tunes or is it pretty much any ones you fancy?
many thanks for your time
The Siege of Ennis would be a good starting place.
Salmon Tails and the Grand Old Dame Brittania aka Leather Away the Wattle
The Ennis Reel aka Siege of Ennis (four parts) - Spanish Lady - Bog Cotton - The Rose Tree were always the old favourites with the bands. By the time you got throught playing all that lot non stop the dancers usually had enough.
Yes, they don’t always dance The Siege of Ennis to The Siege of Ennis, do they?
Perhaps someone can enlighten us on this strange situation.
Sounds good to me dodger. You don’t have to tell this cat to polka twice. They usually try to make me stop, actually. “Play some *&$#%@& reels why don’tcha?!?”
thanks guys!
Don’t forget O’Connor’s- one of the standards!
In our collective experience, across Ireland, North America and Europe, and including Sliabh Luachra ~ we rarely danced to or played polkas for “The Seige of Ennis”. That includes playing the tune by that name, though the rare moments could also include dancing it ‘by-the-book’. 32 bar double reels were the usual choice, 32 bars being the exact fit to the dance in most of its forms. Single reels will also work if repeated evenly, such as 4-times through a 2-part single reel, or using a 4-part single reel…
Curiously, we, my wife and I, have also danced it to 32 bar double jigs, with the rise-and-grind…
Our favourite version, from Ulster, doesn’t have a star right and left in the center. Swings on either side are the same, rather than the by-the-book hands round, and in the middle, instead of the star, a basket, a ‘Little Christmas’, just in the one direction, to the left and clockwise (Rfoot forward), for 8 bars worth of music…
Rakes of Mallow - old hat but awakes the 8-year old in the women.
# Posted on September 10th 2005 by CELTICCHEF83
https://thesession.org/discussions/7711
polkas & comments: “The Rattlin’ Bog” / “The Seige of Ennis #1 of 3”
https://thesession.org/tunes/583/comments