The Yellow Wattle jig

I heard this tune played in “The Smoky Chimney” by Eoghan O’sullivan, Gerry Harrington and Pual De Grae, then got the music somehwere and arranged it refering to the actual recording. According to the liner notes, this is a particular favourite of Micho Russel’s.
Later I got Mary Custy and Eoin O’Neill’s “With a Lot of Help from their Friends,” where Micho plays the tune. This setting is almost identical to the one Micho played.

I’m not absolutely sure, but I guess this is originally a pipe tune.

Martin Nolan recorded this tune as part of a medley of jigs with “Tiochfaidh tu abhaile liom”, “The Hag at the Churn” and “The Queen of the Rushes”. It appears on his first album, “Travel ’n Style”. I was able to find it in several trad record shops in Ireland, and I think Na Piobairi Uilleann still has this CD as well.

Slainte, you’re absolutely right, this is a pipe tune and a very good one, too.

I thought so, because some parts are really repetitive like Pipe on the Hob and the Gaelic Club, which is originally a Scottish pipe march.

This is an awesome tune. Yes, definitely pipe tune, but also fits nicely (simply) into the C row of a concertina, highly recommended! (by me, anyway)

This setting is the way I play it, but I’ve sometimes in sessions been playing with people who like measure 6 of the B part to sound just like measure 2, i.e. still the C, not the D. I don’t like that nearly so well, and I’d like to think that it’s because it’s more musically interesting to change up the C–>D, but might just be because that’s the way I first learned it (from a whistle player, a big fan of Micho Russell).

Micho Russell recorded another lovely pipe jig called “The Piper’s Chair” after this one. I transcribed his version of it: https://thesession.org/tunes/1255#comment134639 I’m sure the two tunes sound beautiful together on concertina.

The Wattles are all flowering at the moment around Sydney and they look spectacular! They all flower in the (southern hemisphere) winter, and there are all different kinds in various shades of yellow and whitish-yellow with names like “Golden Wattle” and “Sunshine Wattle”, but the ones that catch your eye are the lines of trees along the freeway which are blooming in a very vivid yellow on both sides of the road, and along the centre reservation. I’m lucky - I get to see them almost every day!

Here’s a transcription of fiddler Gerry O’Connor’s playing of this tune on his Journeyman cd. The liner notes say he got this version from Micho Russell.

X: 1
T: Yellow Wattle, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmix
dcA AGE|[A3A3] ABc|dcA ABc|dcA GED|
dcA AGE|ABA AGE|DE/E/D cde|1 dcA GAc:|2 dcA GEA||
DE/E/D ~c3|ded ~c3|ded cde|dcA GEA|
DE/E/D ~c3|ded d2 c|ABA ABc|1 dcA GEA:|2 dcA GAc||

This is a really great tune, it’s played here by Gerry O’Connor, Paul McSherry and Martin O’Hare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpAkgNhImjU&feature=related

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The Yellow Wattle set on “The Smoky Chimney” is on my short list of greatest recorded sets of all time. Something about that low fiddle cut into the last tune just kills me.

Third tune here by Planxty. Mistaken called a slip jig on the clip description http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyE3Mye-eks

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X:3 from the piping of Willie Clancy.

Martin Nolan plays this Jig with the B part played first and he plays it after Hag At The Churn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpAkgNhImjU&index=5&list=PLOuAAotv8ywchvltbXiCbtGT7TImUxiSI

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This setting I got in a session. I later found that Danú (on All Things Considered) play essentially the same version, except for some D’s changed into d’s in part B. They also start with part B and end the set after a repeat of part B so I’m not sure which way around they’d play it in a session.

Such a great tune!

I really like those “modally” sounding tunes like The Hag At The Churn and The Walls Of Liscarrol.

This one almost has something slip-jiggy about it, doesn’t it?

First tune in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5r4TRUCQU

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Tola Custy plays a very nice version of this jig on Blarney Pilgrims podcast episode 33 -
Tola pointed out that a wattle is a straight hazel branch used in building thatch roofs -
https://blarneypilgrims.fireside.fm/33

transscription based on Kevin Burke’s playing on If the cap fits

Here’s a quick blast of The Yellow Wattle on mandolin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90GbCBKrHng

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Here’s Tola Custy playing The Yellow Wattle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfDK8Gyn37M

play video