The Birmingham reel

This is starting to gain popularity in Sydney sessions, and this setting comes from a session recording. It appears on Frankie Gavin’s “Up And Away” (track 1) as “Eddie Moloney’s”. I got what I think is the original name of “Birmingham Reel” from looking at Paddy O’Brien sets.

Apparently another title is “The Kinvara Reel”.

Kenny has pointed out this is a variant of “the Humours of Westport”: https://thesession.org/tunes/47

I heard Kevin Crawford and P.J. King play this reel on the radio months ago. The track was taken from their album “Raise the Rafters”: https://thesession.org/recordings/1158

This appears in a 2-part setting as the “Birmingham Reel” on Four Men & a Dog’s “Doctor A’s Secret Remedies”. Their B-part is reminiscent of the A-part of the Scartaglen Reel.

X: 1
T: The Birmingham Reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
S: Four Men & a Dog
K: Gmaj
g3f gdBd|g2dg fgaf|~g3f gdBd|1 ecAc BGBd:|2 ecAc BGAB||
|:GB~B2 G2ge|fddc A2BA|GABd gage|1 fdcA AGAB:|2 fdcA AGBd||

X: 1
T: Birmingham Reel
M: C|
L: 1/8
R: Reel
K: Gmaj
S: A.K.A. Eddie Moloney’s - Mary Bergin Youtube Clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4hos7ZkRl8

play video

Z: George Grasso - 21 November 2010
~g3 f {g}gd B/c/d | gd B/c/d e2 ab | {f}~g3 f {g}gd B/c/d | ecAc BG B/c/d ||
{f}~g3 f {g}gd B/c/d | gd B/c/d e2 ab |{f}(3gag fa {b}gd B/c/d | ecAc {c}BG{B}AF |]
[|Gd B/c/d ~G3 z | Gd B/c/d e ~A3 | Gd B/c/d g2 eg | fdcA {B}AGFA ||
Gd B/c/d ~G3 z | Gd B/c/d e ~A3 | Gd B/c/d .g3 e | fd c/B/A {B}AGFA |]
[| ~G2 dG {B}AG dG | ~G2 dG FDFA | {F}~G3 d B/c/d e2 | {b}fdcA {B}AGFA ||
~G2 dG {B}AG dB | GBdG FDFA | {F}~G3 d B/c/d e2 | {b}fdcA {B}AGfa |]

Based on the playing of Dylan Foley and Josh Dukes, from the album “The New York Connection”.

This reel is played on whistle by Eddie Moloney on the recording “Eddie Moloney, Master Musician” CD#2, track #13. He has its’ title as “Tommy Whelan’s No.8”, probably indicating that Tommy Whelan was the composer. The recording was made in 1974, in the RTE studios in Dublin by Ciaran MacMathuna for “Ceili House”.

As Kenny mentioned, Eddie Moloney played this tune, and this is transcribed from the Master Musician double CD, disc 2, track 13. He jumped the octave quite a bit, especially when playing whistle, so the bottom Ds are often in the second octave instead. This was an attempt to capture some of the variations, but he changes the endings during the playing, so definitely listen to get all the details.