Tell Her I Am jig

Another Martin Hayes arrangement from The Lonesome Touch. He plays it in a set after Gallagher’s Frolics, and highlights how to play a tune beautifully with little to no ornamentation. Our local session does a slow jig set starting with the Kerfunken, then Tell Her I Am, and then into Paddy Fahy’s Jig. Fiddlers will want to decide when to hit those “e” notes with the fourth finger, second string, and when to just catch the open “e” string. To my ear, when this tune’s played as slowly as Hayes does it, the fingered “e”s sound better, except for a few open ones as variations. If you have intonation problems reaching that fourth finger “e,” try aiming for the sound rather than some physical spot on the fingerboard.

Story has it that a fine, young woman was in the audience at a Michael Coleman performance in NYC and was quite taken by the dashing fiddler. She begged a mutual friend to go up to the stage as ask whether Coleman was betrothed. His reply was to play this jig.

It’s a Zen-like title of great profundity.

Thanks for enlightening us as to the source of this tune, I had always assumed it was the title of a song which had been adopted as a tune, thanks to its beautiful melody.

You’ll even hear it on a Peter Sellers recording. 🙂

The Sligo style duet on the Michael Gorman recording is worth a listen (with Mick Flynn on flute). It’s an antidote to the Hayes recording, i suppose - which I also like. Just a great tune!

I learned this piece from Francis McPeakes Tin Whistle Tutor. I’ve been playing it for a while. I use to like to play this tune slow…almost as an air. At this point in time I enjoy playing this jig (a double jig I believe) fast…really fast. Putting all things together, 1-the note arrangement/rythem, 2-Francis McPeake tutor and 3-quick playing sounds good–> I believe this to be a piping tune thoug I’ve never heard it played by anybody but myself.

Maybe it’s because I learn’t it from O’Neill’s but I much prefer the 2 part version notated there - it was also recorded by the Northern trad group (fogotten their name but Pat McCabe played piano box with them) back in the early eighties as a two part jig and sounded brilliant. The setting is as follows:-

d|edB GAB|DED GAB|DED cBA|BGE E2d|
edB GAB|DED GAB|AGE cBA|BGG G2 :||
d|Bdd def|gfe dBG|A2A AGA|BGE E2d|Bdd def|gfe dBG|AGE cBA|BGG G2 :||

It also sounds great played slow with emphasis on the E minor bit at the end of the fourth bar!

That group was probably Aileach.

Yes…slow with emphasis on the E minor bit! I agree!

Thanks Longnote, now you mention it, Aileach was the name I couldn’t remember - I’ve long since lost their cassette but there was some great music on it.

Aileach were also a great favourite of mine in my teens. In the past year or two former Aileach fiddler Dinny McLaughlin has released a solo CD and now, I hear, he has a book out, either written by him or by someone else about him. CD contains some great tunes including some of Dinny’s own compositions and he is joined on it by a few of his many former pupils.

Here’s my transcription… for what it’s worth.

X: 1
T: Tell Her I Am
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
edB ~G3|DED ~G3|DED c2 d|BGE E B/c/d|
|edB ~G3|DED ~G3|AGF GBA|1 GFE D B/c/d:|2 GFE D2 A||
~B3 dBG|~B2e dBG|AcB AGA|BGE E2 c|~B3 deg|
|age d2 B|cBA GBA|1 GFE D2 A:|2 GFE D B/c/d||
|efg efg|dBG G B/c/d|e2 a aga|bge e2 d|efg efg|dBG G e/f/g|
|agf gba|gfe d B/c/d|efg efg|dBG G B/c/d|e2 a aga|
|bge e2 B|def gba|gfe d2 B|cBA GBA|GFE D B/c/d||

LongNote - the book is written by Liz Doherty and it’s called “From Barefoot Days - a life of music, song and dance in Inishowen”.

X:4 Sligo setting from Michael Gorman, X:5 piping setting from Patsy Touhey. Touhey’s setting is chockablock with “backstitches,” a staccato triplet played with fingers of both hands; substitute rolls here if you play something other than the pipes, or aren’t that tight if you are. Or use a bread-and-butter staccato triplet. I’ve always figured that Michael Coleman’s records of this jig (he recorded it in both the 20s and 30s) would lay down the law regarding how it should be played so I’m surprised no one’s submitted the setting he played, which was the same as Gorman’s far as I can tell. The settings previously submitted here have a bit of Tommy Peoples’s version in them, I notice.

Here’s Matt and Shannon Heaton talking about this tune on their Tune Of The Month podcast:

http://tuneofthemonth.podbean.com/2013/03/28/tune-of-the-month-episode-44-tell-her-i-am/

for an alternative version, look for ‘A Drop of the Hard Stuff’’ by Peter Sellers on You Tube

Great version here with Harry McGowan and Mick Loftus
https://youtu.be/vODEwyOKKtw

play video