Jackson’s hornpipe

Submitted partially due to a request from Mix O’Lydian after playing at a recent session. Quite an interesting tune, deceptively simple but the strong A tonal centre can fool the listener into thinking a G sharp is necessary.

This tune appears in “Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland - Hornpipes & Breakdowns, Clog and Step Dances” Ed. Kennedy, as Jacksons (No. 85 in the book)

Unfortunately this generation of tune book contains next to no information on origin or attribution, so the other reason to post this is to see if anyone else can recognise and perhaps point out another source or name. I’ve searched high and low and can’t find any other source….

Why thank ’ee, Capn H for tipping me the black dots!

Having looked at it, there is something unusual about the tune.

The tonal centre is A, there two sharps in the key signature and there are no “missing” notes - which makes it an A-Mix tune without a doubt.

On this basis, you would expect to be using A-Maj, G-Maj and D-Maj chords to back it.

But I find this not to be the case.

The whole thing can be backed using just two chords: - AMaj and G-Maj (preferably with the G-Maj always played as a power chord).

Here’s my take on the chords:

||: A-Maj A-Maj | A-Maj A-Maj | G-Maj G-Maj | G-Maj G-Maj |
| A-Maj A-Maj | A-Maj A-Maj | G-Maj G-Maj | A-Maj A-Maj ||
||:A-Maj A-Maj | G-Maj A-Maj | G-Maj G-Maj | G-Maj G-Maj |
| A-Maj A-Maj | G-Maj A-Maj | G-Maj G-Maj | A-Maj A-Maj :||

Finally, I have a subliminal feeling that I have heard this tune somewhere before. It has the feeling of a Scottish pipe march, so it might be worth looking through some of the Scottish collections for it - perhaps under a different title,

Incidentally, “Jackson” is a very common Ulster-Scots surname.

Cap’ H. Your tune seems to have a passing resemblance to the Victoria Hornpipe, posted elswhere on the session:

https://thesession.org/tunes/4846

However (if indeed this is the same tune) if would say that I prefer your version …!

Aha! Scottish tune! “The Victoria Hornpipe” recorded by the Cameron Brothers of Kirriemuir in the 1930s!

I don’t think the Jacksons in the Michael Coleman recording is the same tune at all. Coleman didn’t record theis hornpipe that I know of.