Off In The Morning (reel) on The Session

Off in the Morning

This is one of the reels in the Speed the Plough family, and also goes by that name though it is quite different from the first Speed the Plough I learned.

I didn’t mean to fulfill my own request--sorry Jeremy, I hit that link by accident. Your new search menu for tune titles threw me for a loop. I guess I was a bit “off” in the evening.

This one goes well after the Wise Maid or Bantry Lasses.

This was among the first tunes I learnt. I was introduced to it as ‘Croghan Hill’. Cathal McConnel recorded it (‘On Lough Erne’s Shore’) as Nugent’s Reel - I think, taken from Laurence Nugent.

The other Speed the Plough that Will mentions appears to be related only by marriage - I have studied the two tunes under an electron microscope and found no genetic similarities.

There are many similarities in the two tunes:
They are both reels
They are both Irish
They are both tunes
They are both a sequence of notes
They both have a beginning and end
and so on…

The nugents

David - I think it was Larry Nugent’s father Sean (?) Nugent Cathal credited this tune to. I doubt that Larry was born when Cathal recorded his 1st LP ( or he might have been just walking, in which case, he was probably playing already !).

Off In The Morning

What a coincidence to see this here. I just started learning this tune on the whistle from an old 1974 Ceolt

Speed The Plough

Sorry, the Irish should have left this one alone. The original Scottish setting in A @ https://thesession.org/tunes/1191 is much nicer I think, but that’s just my personal opinion…

Off In The Morning

Actually no, I take that back - it’s grown on me!

Variation

Will, I find that that gBfB eBdB riff starts to get a bit repetitive after a while, and have found that it alternates nicely with (3gag fg egdB.

…or (3gfg bg egdB.

My version

More variations

Or you could also alter the last 2 bars of each part to |~c2ec BcdB|ADFA G2|| or |cdec BzdB|ADFA G2||

Goes nicely after The Silver Spire.

Idea for a set

Ooh yum, I’ve just discovered it goes well before Palmer’s Gate (Emin version) as well, so you get:
The Silver Spire/Croghan Hill/Palmer’s Gate

It’s very similiar to Peter Street except in a different key.

Idea for a set

petermeller and co play it with Tim Maloney’s https://thesession.org/tunes/621 which has a similar feel and which lower notes (the ones under G) can be played high for good effect, just as in this reel.