Paddy Fahey’s reel

This tune is played in every key there is, pretty much. I like Martin Hayes‘ version in C, and have adapted it (w/o all the variations) for transcription purposes. It appears on “The Lonesome Touch” and is entitled “Another Paddy Fahy’s”. This tune also appears on Tony McManus’ “Ceol More” played in E major (using capo). His version is basically the same with a slight difference in the 2nd part:

|:c2ge fdcd|cBGF DEFD|Gc~c2 gceg|fdcd cBGF|
Ecde efdc|BdGA _B=BcG|dg~g2 defa|gfdc BGFD:|

I think the thing I like about Martin Hayes’ version is the F# in the final bar.

There are plenty other transcriptions of this on the net. JC’s Tune Index has them all:-

#159 “Paddy Fahey’s No.3” - in A major
#160697 “Paddy Fahey’s #2” - in C major
#533 “Paddy Fahy’s” - in D major
#755 “Paddy Fahy’s” - in G major

The last 2 are from Henrik Norbeck’s.

This version is unlike those by Moving Cloud on Foxglove, or Joe Burke on The Bucks of Oranmore. Similar versions are played by Jason O’Rourke on The Bunch of Keys and by Annemarie McCormack on Ace and Deuce. The descending triplet at the end of each part on these recordings is what hooked me into learning this cheerful reel.

We’ve started playing this in D now in our session, for the flutes.

Also on Kevin and Sean Moloney’s duet album. Paddy Carty is cited as the source.

I learned this from a duet between Randal Bays on Fiddle and Dave Cory on banjo, really great stuff! They play the B part basically like this:

|:c2eg fdBd|cBGF DEFD|Gc~c2 gceg|fdcB GcBd|
c2de fdBd|cBGA _B2Bc|dg(3ggg defd|gfdc BGAB:|

And I do really dig that very last F played sharp (unlike what I notated there). 🙂

Angelina Carberry plays this tune after the one she calls Bonnie Anne (Follow me Down to Carlow).
So, she starts the Fahy tune with a few notes from Follow me Down and then “morphs” into the Fahy tune.
I transcribed her version from a short demo she did in her 2007 Irish Arts week banjo class.
(The version of Bonnie Anne can be found on the Follow me Down page.)
She played each tune only twice, with different variations each time. So I transcribed both repeats.

There is some dispute as to whether the tune Angelina played is really this Fahey tune or not.
If someone can identify the tune better, I will move it (if I can??)

First Tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pioTdYoCMX0

play video

Eileen O’brien Version 19:16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4QjXQb6220

play video

This is a tune off Macha Trí‘s album The Bear Dance. It’s paired with The Whistler of Rosslea on the track, and is commonly played in several keys. This is the low version from Ann Sheehy and Nicky McAuliffe. As far as I can tell Fahey never named this tune, so Paddy O’Brien made up “Fahey’s Drink at the Well.” Lovely flute playing by Laura MacKenzie.

I would say that this is one of the Paddy Fahey’s that has a good chance to be in thesession already.

This is the setting I am used to. Not sure where I got it from, I think it is maybe from the Kane sisters or Brida Keville.

@Fernando, I think you’re right, a friend of mine just sent me this one: https://thesession.org/tunes/1402, looks to be the same. I couldn’t find it by entering ABC notation or the title, so I thought I’d transcribe it.

This seems to be the one given in the appendix to Maria Holohan’s thesis as PF’s reel no. 20, where it’s given in C. https://thesession.org/tunes/1402 - as mentioned above.