The Blackberry Blossom reel

I’m posting this in an attempt to get it out of my head where it’s been playing incessantly the last couple of days.

I first heard this reel while in Corofin on my honeymoon. We had met up with Siucra while there and they came to stay with us for a few days. I had bought a 100 Best Session Tunes (Walton’s) tunebook from Custy’s, and Shannon Heaton was going through them for me to check out the settings to see if they were any good (they were). She had been wanting to learn this one, and so she asked me to play it for her so she could learn it. I was floored; it was my first real intro to the way Irish players learn. I can still remember the scent of the peat fire as I played the thing and heard how she transformed it from my playing it off music into real Irish music. So the tune is one of my most nostalgic. 🙂 Thanks for posting it, Mark!
Zina

Aaaaaahhh, what a nice story 🙂

Yes, although knowing Shannon, it may have been her tactful way of letting me know the pitfalls of learning off music vs. learning by ear… 🙂

I know tune requests are not allowed in discussions, but a tune of this name is already on The Session. If anyone has either the ABC or dots for Natalie MacMasters version of “Blackberry Blossom” (beginning of track 13. A Compilation) I would be eternally grateful if you gave them to me.
Thanks in advance

snowyowl

Tommy Stanners calls it the Bargy Reel. This is one of my favourite tunes.

What’s the tune that sounds a bit like this one, but is in A and has four parts?

https://thesession.org/tunes/3154

That’s the one! Thanks very much!

Yep, No 3154 is “Roddy McDonald’s Fancy”, an adaptation / elaboration for the Highland chanter.

X:1
T:Blackberry Blossom
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:Planxty “After the Break”
K:G
ge|“G”dBAc BGGA|.B2 .BA B2 ge|dBAc BA.A.G|“Am”eaag a2 ge|
“G”dBAc BGGA|B2 BA (3B^cd ge|dBAc BGGG|“Am”eaaa a>zef||
“G”~g2 gf gaba|“C”~g3 b “D7”agef|“G”~g2 gf gabg|“Am”eaaa agef|
“G”~g2 gf gaba|“C”~g3 b “D7”a2 ga|“G”bgaf “D7”gfed|“Am”eaag a2 ||

Last one here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saE1Fl0ZuW0

play video

A slightly different take with catchy phrasing from a Comhaltas session.
Exceptional about this G tune is it ends high on a non-tonic, just begs to upshift to A mix or dor in the next tune.
Though I suppose could go to something in D that starts on the high A, like St Anne’s.

Not too different from the other settings really, but here’s my take on it.

This is the setting of the tune referred to above as played by Tommy Stanners of Wexford on a single row 10 key accordion on TV some years ago. It was a favourite of his father’s and was played locally with the title ‘The Bargy reel’. Bargy is a barony in south Wexford.

As taught by John Whelan on 2022-08-10