Airaidh Nam Badan jig

Got this from Anna Massie’s album “Glad Company”. Not sure of its origins.

Sounds a lot like Larry O’Gaff to me:
https://thesession.org/tunes/498

Gosh you’re right, it does a bit! I wonder if there is a relation…

Lots of tunes have evolved differently in different regions, or in the hands of different musicians, sort of like species evolving in diverse ways over time. Probably there was some ancestral common source, or one developed from variations on the other, or one inspired the other. I think the similarity is unlikely to be a co-incidence.

I was under the impression that it might be a more recent composition. Without the sleeve notes for the album I can’t tell.

Interestingly, Airigh Nam Badan is an archaeological site on Lewis, http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/134830/details/lewis+airigh+nam+badan/

It’s also on Track 10 of Blazin’ Fiddles “Magnificent Seven”

what a fun song to play.. and with an adventurous sound

Glad you like it! I do too 🙂

This tune can be found in the Patrick McDonald collection of 1784 in the “Western Isle Airs” section (where, incidentally, the “Skye Air” from Blazin Fiddles’ album “Magnificent Seven” can be found, and which precedes “Airaidh Nam Badan” on that recording).

Not modern at all then!!

This is the version from the Captain Simon Fraser of Knockie Collection, tune #38 (1816). Notes say to play it slow and pointedly.

This is not a jig, but a slow air. The transcription is here is pretty faithful to the 1816 manuscript, but some measures do not count right because of the 32nd notes. I checked the 1874 edition, but no substantial changes were made. Since this is a slow air, I don’t think it matters.

The tune notes from Simon Fraser: 38.—The Editor acquired this beautiful melody from his father, but cannot trace any anecdote regarding it. He, however, thinks it originated in the district of Glenmorison,
where there is a sweet spot, which still bears the Gaelic name of it, and marches with the property on which Mr. Fraser of Culduthel, so often mentioned, then lived. It certainly bears the marks of his style.

Natalie MacMaster plays a it on her “Road to the Isle” and “A Compilation” CDs. She plays it straight with just a little ornamentation. Very sweet tune.

This is close to how Natalie MacMaster plays it, and the version we now play in our session. Some cannot handle the fact that it ends on the Cnat, and doesn’t resolve. I feel that the tune is all about longing, and sometimes that has no resolution. Don’t play it too fast and you will see what I mean.