Bill McEvoy’s reel

This is a really nice tune but I end up having to play it by my lonely self as no-one here in Sydney knows it or would ever be interested in learning it.

It is a nice tune! Bet you could teach it to bb, Mark, and if she’d play it then so would everyone else.

This’d go well with the Paddy Fahey’s that Zina posted a while back. Or maybe it’s too similar. But definitely a fun tune.

It reminds me of The Nervous Man.

I shouldn’t have mentioned that - you’ll never be able to play this tune now without slipping into the other.

There’s no danger of that as I don’t know the other - this might be just a version of it. Can you post it sometime David? Zina: poor bb has been shifted to a different part of the office so she can’t websurf at work anymore! I think that’s why she’s been a bit quiet recently. I hope she does learn this tune.

Well, teach it to her, then, Mark. Then you’ll be playing it the two of you, and everyone else will quickly follow suit, always happens that way.

This is a composition by Sean Ryan. Compare Paddy O’Brien’s "The Nervous Man" https://thesession.org/tunes/3247.

Someone listed this tune as No. 2 on the details page, but it shows up as No. 1 in Sean Ryan’s book.

Here’s the abcs from Sean’s book, "The Hidden Ireland."

X:1
T:Bill McEvoy’s No.1
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:Gmix
gf|:d2cA dG~G2|DGBd gdBd|c2B/c/d cF~F2|CFAc fagf|
d2cA dG~G2|DGBd gdBd|c2Ac fage|1fdcA G2gf:|2fdcA G2Bd||
K:G
gfga bgaf|gbag fd~d2|ec~c2 gceg|fgag fdef|
gfga bgaf|gbag fd~d2|ec~c2 gceg|1fdcA G2Bd:|2fdcA G2||

Hmm, I’m amazed how close my version is to the original. The endings of the parts in the original are even more like "The Nervous Man"! If I can just get myself to deal with where it starts to change in the 2nd bar of the A-part in both tunes I’ll be larfing…

Now learn The Blockers in G mix and you’ll be set.

X: 1
T: McEvoy’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8

K: Gmix
d2 cA d~G3|DGBd gdBd|c/d/c Bd c~F3|CFAc fagf|
d/e/d cA d~G3|DGBd gd B/c/d|cFAc fage|1 fdcA G2 Ac:|2 fdcA G3 f||
K: G
|:~g3a bg a/g/f|gbag fddf|ec c/c/c gceg|fgag fdef|
~g3a bg a/g/f|gbag fddf|ecc/c/c gceg|1 fdcA G3 f:|2 fdcA G2 Ac||

Does anybody know to which Bill McEvoy the title refers? My grandad, who died a wee while ago, was called Bill McEvoy and was quite well-known in the trade union circles for leading a strike in Liverpool (against Balfour Beatty, I think) which wound up being the longest in British industrial history, or so I’ve been told. Sorry if this sounds a bit weird, but it’d be amazing if I could tell the family that I just stumbled across a reel named after my grandad on some website!

*Crosses fingers and hopes for the best*

Swift

http://www.ccenorthamerica.org/Sites/MidAtlHallOfFame/HoF.htm#BILL%20McEVOY

Nice link, if a disappointment for Swift…

But Swift, there’s nothing to stop you from learning and playing this tune in memory of your grandad… That would be an admirable use of the melody…

Cheers Dow, sadly he ain’t my grandad (on reflection, this Bill seems more like the kind of bloke who’d have a tune named after him, my family isn’t musical at all) but I reckon I’ll play the tune for the family anyway next time I’m in Liverpool. It is a nice one…

Peace, S

P.S. Thanks for posting the reel too.

I’ve been going through the Sean Ryan recordings that were recorded in his kitchen and there are several that are not on this website. I’ll be adding transcriptions of them in the next several days.
These are probably in his books as well - I haven’t checked.