Johnny Loughran’s reel

Source: Cathal McConnell : "Long Expectant Comes at Last"
Transcription: g.m.p.

A different version of this tune, in D, is featured on Altan’s ‘Blackwater’ - something like this:

M:4/4
k:D
dB|AFdF AdAB|AFdF efdB|AFdF ABde|fedf e2:|
:dB|defg ~a3f|~b3f ~a3f|1 defg ~a3f|bfaf egfe:|2
~g3e ~f3e|dgfe dc||

…and I forgot to say - they call it Con McGinley’s.

Aha! I knew I’d heard it before somewhere…

This is the Con McGinley’s reel off Altan’s Blackwater.

for more on this go to:
https://thesession.org/tunes/1644/comments (The Cloon or Throw It Across (reel)

I have this from the Darley & McCall collection where it’s unnamed. The (in)famous Zouki has it as Bray Shore but I’ve no idea where that name comes from. If anyone has any more info on this tune I’d be happy to hear it. It’s kind of a silly little reel, but I like it. I often play it before going into Bunker Hill.

I think I heard this tune played by Altan on radio a couple of years ago. Not sure on which album it was originally recorded.

Here’s a related to tune called "Jessie over the Bridge" or "Over the Bridge to Bessie": https://thesession.org/tunes/3968

This can be Con McGinley’s on "Blackwater". I don’t have the album, so can’t tell if it’s correct.

Here’s another transcription of the tune: https://thesession.org/tunes/6247

Jessie over the Bridge, or Over the Bridge to Bessie: https://thesession.org/tunes/3968

And here too https://thesession.org/tunes/6247.

A very similar tune called "Over the Bridge to Peggy" seems to be listed in O’Neill’s.

*sigh*
Not just duped, but tripled… oh well. I can’t beleive it’s on Cathal McConnell’s album and I never recognised it. I’ll have to go back and listen to it again when I get home. Well, it’s a nice little reel anyhow and now perhaps its three times as likely to get found and played. Nice catch, Slawncha.

My Version

Key:Dmaj
| AFdF A3B | AFdf efdB | AFdF Abde | fedf e3B|
AFdF A3B | AFdf efdB | AFdF Abde | fedf e3f|
| defg a3f | b3f a3f | defg adfa | bfaf egfe |
defg a3f | b3f a3f | g3e f3e | dgfe d3 ||

An authentically older (early 19th century) version of this tune is Tune 894 in the Petrie Collection where it is has no name but is noted as coming from Munster.

It was given to Petrie by a Mr Joyce who had bizarrely notated it in G (with an F# instead of Fnat in the version here). Petrie evidently didn’t like it and made a note in pencil "not to be used, too Scotch". Played with an F# it does indeed sound weird, but not, I would have thought, particularly Scottish. Perhaps the F# gave an impression of the Scottish pipes to Petrie’s ear. My reading of the situation is that the F# in the key signature was probably nothing more than a transcription error in Joyce’s manuscript.

Anyway, here is the ABC of this old version:
GEcA GECE | GEcA G2z2 | GEcA GAcd | edcA d2cA :|
cdef gage | gage f2ed | cdef gage | agec d2cA :||

I’ve seen a "P J Joyce" (deceased) mentioned in the Preface to the Roche Collection (1909) as being a contributor. I wonder if he could be the same "Joyce" who was a frequent contributor to the Petrie Collection.

Casey’s Favourite: https://thesession.org/tunes/10386

Transcribed from James Byrne’s recording.