The Brisk Young Lads jig

From a New England collection of fiddle music.

Randy Miller & Jack Perron:

https://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/
https://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/store/c2/Books.html

As transcribed from Aird’s Airs and Melodies, Volume 1.

X:15
T:Bung Your Eye.
B:Aird’s Airs and Melodies vol 1
L:1/8
M:6/8
Z:Transcriptions by Jack Campin, July 1999.
%%FILEURL:http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/Music/Aird-v1.abc
%%TUNEURL: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/gettune/0000000f.html
%%ID:0000000f
K:AMin
E|ABA c2d|edc B2A |GAG B2c |dge dB
G|ABA c2d|edc Bcd |e2A BA^G|A3 A2:|
G|cde g2a|gec gec |GAG B2c |dge dB
G|cde g2a|gec de^g|a2A BA^G|A3 A2:|

Aird’s first three volumes (of six ) were made available from the hard work of Richard Robinson and others:

“Andy Hornby found this in the museum of the King’s Own Regiment, in Lancaster. Thanks to them for their permission to put it here, and to Andy for copying it and passing it on to me […] Volume 1 was typed by Jack Campin, to whom many thanks. The abc link for this goes to his site. What you see here is derived from his version and may be superceded by subsequent proofreading on his part.”

the link to the Aird’s tunes on his website:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/listings.html#aird

There is a version in O’Neill’s 1001 with a cognate but somewhat different B music - it is under the title “The Jolly Old Man”, No.142. I have played it for many years on Bb whistle after the Dancing Master (O’Neill’s No. 183 but transposed down to E Dorian rather than in A Dorian as it is printed there.

This is also in Ryan’s Mammouth attributed to Tom Reagan.

I learned this tune as Bung Your Eye but these days I usually think of it as Mary the Maid, which is my preferred title for it. I generally play in the middle of a set with Roaring Jelly (aka Smash the Windows: https://thesession.org/tunes/101) and The Gobby-O (https://thesession.org/tunes/5806).

Got this lovely piping version from a live performance by Pádraic Keane. He is joined by his father Tommy (pipes), mother Jacqueline (concertina) and sisters Maisie & Siobhán (fiddles). The clip is for his receiving the TG4 “Young Musician of the Year” award for 2011. The jig starts at 8:14, followed by another fine piping tune, “The Wearied Lad”.

https://youtu.be/k_6ChI60rvA

play video

Also, they have the tune name as “The Jolly Old Man” in the Youtube clip.

From the playing of Josie Nugent.

From the playing of Joe MacLean.

A simplified form of the version published as ‘Bung your eye’ in Neil Gow’s Repository Part 1 (1799).