A bit of trivia here, but I always like tunes with animal and bird titles. A great tune (Scottish American) is Old Grey Cat which you can play at a cracking pace. “Endless bird titles eg ”When the lark rises up in the cool of the morning“. ”The hens’ march to the midden", oft played in Scotland.
Hi, “The cat’s meow” is a nice one too
We play “The Old Grey Cat” in both bands I’m in, but in one as a reel, and the other as a bouncy hornpipe: my preference is for the latter.
For birds, there are: The Curlew, The Snipe, The Seagull, Tammie Norrie (Puffin), The Eagle’s Whistle - and the Burns song, Westlin’ Winds, names at least 9 different species!
The Cat’s Rambles, slide recorded by the Bothys as ‘Mary Willie’s’
There are at least six tunes with ‘curlew’ in the title:
The Curlew (reel by Josephine Keegan)
The Curlew (Highland pipe jig by Donald MacPherson - erroneously listed on this site as a slide)
The Noisy Curlew (reel popular in N. Connacht)
The Curlew Hills (barndance, named after a range of hills whose name has no connection with the bird)
…and two I only discovered just now when searching the database:
The Curlews (jig based on the J. Keegan reel)
The Flight of the Curlew (waltz composed by a member of this site).
These cat tunes tell a wee story:
The Cat That Kittled in Jamie’s Wig
The Cat That Ate the Candle
The Cat and the Bacon
The Fat Cat
Where’s the Cat!!!!?
The Cat in the Corner
The Cat in the Hopper
Then there’s:
Huish the Cat
The Crimlin Cat
The Stream of the Cat
The Black Cat o’ Benrinnes
Geese are well-represented - both genders …
- The Wild Geese
- The Flight of the Wild Geese
- The Geese in the Bog
- The Gander in the Pratie Hole
Here’s an entire album of an ornithological bent.
https://thesession.org/recordings/1285
Mix O’Lydian - what does Pratie Hole mean (Gander in…)? Sounds Scottish?
I was keen on “Goosey Goosey Gander” as a child.
Gonzo : Fancy a whole birdy album, will peruse.
Praties are potatoes…. As we say in Edinburgh, you’ll have had your chips.
🙂
@Susan K - Johnny Jay has just answered your question ….
… more about “praties” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JScrL4bpJ9c
Dogs? I found just now “The Dog Ate The Bird” (combo) and “The Hair of The Dog”.
This one is american but was amazingly covered by We Banjo 3 and Sharon Shannon: The Fox (geese are mentioned in the lyrics, as the fox eats them, hehe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbjB9MGxLzU
“The Fox” certainly had American traditional versions, but I believe Wikipedia is right to say it goes back to 15th century England. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_(folk_song) ) Of course, that may be even worse than American for the purposes of this… ;)
See “The Boar and the Fox” from cd “Home is where the Van is” by Battlefield Band. This song never fails to sadden me because the lady fox is so vicious. I don’t know anything about the song but think it would be Scottish - the one song on that brilliant cd that I prefer to skip! (On TheSession recordings).
The Dog Among the Bushes
The Morning Thrush
The Chattering Magpie
Dog Big and Dog Little
The Thrush in the Storm
The first year we did Portal Irish Music Week, one of the evening events was a slideshow lecture about humming birds (of which there are tons of interesting species that either live in or migrate through the Chiracahua mountains, where Portal is). The camp staff played music before the show, and I think we played nothing but bird tunes for a half hour (and didn’t even come close to exhausting the supply).
A few of my favorites are The Skylark, Pigeon On The Gate, Bird in the Bush, Curlew, Noisy Curlew, Lark in the Morning, Blackbird, Lark on the Strand…
I like Jenny‘s chickens!
and Caoimhin O‘Raghallaigh‘s March of the three legged dog.
Not in the cats and dogs and birds listing but fun nonetheless from the Leitrim Fiddler is “The Goat That Ate the Cabbage Plants”. I’ve never heard of it being played or recorded anywhere but I’m going to learn it for my own amusement - but not to play at a session.
I suppose “The hair of the dog” doesn’t count as dogs don’t often get drunk.
Well, the most famous cat in Scottish folk music must be Sam the Skull, a real Boss Cat who is in charge of his neighbourhood. I can only remember the chorus by heart:
A’m a cat, A’m a cat, A’m a Glesca cat,
And ma name is Sam the Skull;
A’ve got claws on ma paws like a crocodile’s jaws
And a heid like a fermer’s bull.
A’m no the kind o cat that sat on the mat
Or the kind that ye gie a hug;
A’m the kind o cat that strangles the rats
And even the occasional dug.
There’s the hornpipe The Golden Eagle, normally played in G. A bit of a challenge for the fiddle in the second part, but a cracking tune. Also the jig The Deuk’s Dang Owre Ma Daddie, used by Burns as the tune for one of his songs. The title would translate as “The duck has knocked my father down”; presumably the said father was not too steady on his feet (for whatever reason).
The lark in the strand
The thrush in the straw (??)
The Mouse in the Mug
Someday I want to write one called the cat in the hat.
The Mouse in the Kitchen,
The Fox hunter’s,
The Pretty Gray Sea gull
Come to mind offhand.
There are about a dozen songs that start out talking about hunting “with my dog and my gun,” The Mountain Streams, recorded by De Dannan, is a great one.
“Sam the Skull”?
Here’s an even better one…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joCF5kJ7v6g
😉
Oops, I’ve just realised that a bull is not a cat, dog, or bird. 🙂
Never mind, someone could start a discussion about which animals are appropriate for tune titles in Scottish and Irish music…….
‘Old cat died’ is a great american folk song by the Carolina Chocolate Drops
https://youtu.be/uIPb5o8IK8U
Can’t hear the lyrics in this vid too well but here’s a line-
“Old cat died, what you gonna do? Grab ’im by the tail, put the kitten in the stew!”
Borderer: Whoopee for Sam the Skull. Stayed in Glasgow for 14 years (1972-86) and loved the humour. Had a cat there who climbed the curtains and watched the gulls from our 2nd floor tenement. Once, as a kit, he fell off the window ledge right to the ground. Shocked but uninjured. Irrelevant?
Some bird tunes;
The Woodcock
The Duck
The Hen’s March to the Midden
The Hen’s March
The Black Cat Piddled in the White Cat’s Eye - Australian.
And the late Steve Inglis wrote a parody of Sam the Skull,
I’m a doag, I’m a doag, I’m a Dundee doag,
I’m a D O A G, doag.
As for dogs not drinking, there is Trevor Crozier’s Dead Dog Scrumpy song about the dog who fell into the cider vat and perished therein! (Think TC was Cornish, so outwith the Scottish/Irish remit.)
There’s all kinds of critters in the tune search function. Spiders, butterflys, snakes.. and i’m sure many more.
Trisha : Dead Dog Scrumpy song, sad, sad. I wrote a tune for my cat Henry (Tabby Henry) which I posted here. He was not a drinker but he came to a rotten end because of his greed. I got him from Ork. Friends of Ferals who employed a sweet-natured, fat young woman to bring him up from 2 days old. He clearly watched his Mum eating and imitated her, he would eat simply anything! Pot plants included. Warfarin at K’wall Harbour sealed his fate.
Sorry to hear about Tabby Henry.
The dog in Dead Dog Scrumpy was already pretty old, and it’s quite a humorous song!
@Susan k said - ‘He clearly watched his Mum eating and imitated her, he would eat simply anything!’
I’ve had a cat that ate anything and my current kitten is like that too unfortunately. I’m skinny as a rake however. All kitties are different and some are naturally greedy. It may be a survival instinct
One more for the list. The Cat and the Dog, a slip jig I particularly like. Julie Fowlis and Duncan Chisholm play it beautifully. 2nd tune of the set.
https://youtu.be/n9TJbvfcq_4
And the tune:
https://thesession.org/tunes/9522
At least it is not raining cats and dogs in Glasgow the night. Rains so much in W of Scotland. Wonderful clear Dec night and a 2/3 moon gleaming white thru the clouds. So pretty.
Susan, we had our daughter’s cat with us for nine months while she settled in at Davis Ca.. . Just this week she arranged for one of her cohorts to transport kitty out there. So…….. “Off to California”………Sorry!!
