The Flowers Of Spring jig

I don’t really know anything about this tune, but I like it.

Pressured by recent postings to say more about this, I should add that I learned this tune from a friend and I don’t know where he got it, nor have I ever heard it recorded. We played in in A dorian, then broke into the Walls of Liscarroll, which we treated as if in D mixolydian (I see it posted in the Sessions as D minor, which affects the melody not a bit but of course influences the backer’s choices greatly).

Hey Cuch, the woodenflute tune database lists this tune, along with a three-part jig called Tom Billy’s. Apparently the Tom Billy’s name is also someotimes applied to Flowers Of Spring. There are a few differences in the setting. I started playing around with it, and ended up with the following for the A part:

|:ABA ABd|edB G2 B|dBA GBA|GBd edg|
|ABA ABd|edB G2 B|dBB gBB|1 ABA A2 G:|2 ABA A2 d||

The database also lists it in E dorian, based on DeDannan (no recording or performance info given), and this setting falls very easily onto fiddle:

K: E dorian
|:~E3 EFA|BAF D2 F|AFE DED|DFA BAd|
|~E3 EFA|BAF D2 F|AFF dFF|1 EFE E2 D:|2 EFE E2 A||
|:Bee ede|~f3 edB|BdB DFA|~B3 dBA|
|Bee ede|~f3 edB|BdB DFA|1 EFE E2 A:|2 EFE E2 D||

I’ve always encountered this tune played in the key given here, tho E obviously works well, as with most A tunes in this mode.

It’s often played after Scotsman Over the Border (see https://thesession.org/tunes/548) and is done so on Noel Hill’s and Tony Lenane’s album.

This tune is called “Tom Billy’s” on the Molloy, Brady, Peoples album following the Creel or Turf aka Up Sligo

Here is a nice variation for the B Part I pinched from Tommy Peoples on the above mentioned disc:

|:eaa aga|bab age|e/2f/2ge G3|ede ged|eaa aga|bab age|e/2f/2ge dBG| ABA A3:|

Learned this from fiddler Dave Sheridan (b. Co. Offaly) who runs a folk club in Co. Carlow and plays with the Raw Bar Collective. He was pretty sure but not positive about the name. I’ve searched every which way here and on the internet for this tune, but with no results, so I truly hope I’m not posting something that’s actually in a different key under a different name already. He followed it up with another tune he atttributed to Tommy Coen and which I will post shortly.

https://thesession.org/tunes/1283

Kenny - How did you work that out so fast? I actually know Tom Billy’s/Flowers of Spring and didn’t recognise it at all in the different key. Nor did others…

…it’s an obsession, I’m afraid. I suppose it could be worse….🙂

Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford play this one after the other Tom Billy’s on The Star Above the Garter (album). The call the two of them “Tom Billy’s Jigs”

RTE documentary on the life and music of Tom Billy Murphy: https://soundcloud.com/patrick-cavanagh-2/rte-doc-tom-billy-murphy

I like how the 3rd is left out - for the backers it means you can chord it as mixolydian or dorian, for the melodeon players it’s one of the rare tunes you can play in 2 keys without fudging.

Charlie Piggott and Frankie Gavin on that early DD album - classic.

As played by the Tannahill Weavers.

They play the tune twice. The second time, they use the second line of A part instead of the second line of the B part, to finish the tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_uCtdMec7Q

play video