Hi folks!
I’m trying to find all of the Church Street Polkas. The version I am acquainted with is the one James Keane plays, but unfortunately even he didn’t know their names.
So far I have figured out that one is Saint Mary’s Polka and one is just called the Church Street Polka, but I don’t know if that name is correct or what the third one is.
Any ideas?
Try taking a look at the last track of the very first Chieftains album (Chieftains 1), which starts off with Saint Mary’s Polka and the Church Street Polka. I don’t know, though, if there’s a third.
There’s a Church Street polka (aka Memories of Ballymote) on Ben Lennon’s Natural Bridge cd, but I don’t know whether it’s the same one as on the Chieftains 1 album. The Ben Lennon version is on The Session’s Tune database.
St Mary’s (also known as Gurteen Cross) is there also at https://thesession.org/tunes/1564. They go very well played together starting with Church Street. There’s definitely a much different feel to these polkas than the more common Munster and Sliabh Luachra ones possibly, due to their Connacht origin.
You’ll find Church Street at https://thesession.org/tunes/1560.