The Baltimore Salute reel

A Josie McDermott tune transcribed from Seamus Egan’s “Traditional Music From Ireland”. Similar to Paddy Taylor’s “Little Katie Taylor” https://thesession.org/tunes/2172 in the A-part. The tune Seamus plays before it in G is called “The Baltimore Salute” on that album, posted last year by Gian Marco: https://thesession.org/tunes/2192. On some other albums it appears as “The Lansdowne Lass”. Kenny maintains that the 1st tune in G is actually the Lansdowne Lass and the 2nd tune in D is the Baltimore Salute. I’ve never heard this Dmaj tune called the Baltimore Salute, but that may be because everyone has adopted SE’s names, and the tune in G has become more popular than this one. Whatever their names are, they’re both great tunes, and they go well together. According to one source, this tune was “debuted by Seamus Egan at Kavanaugh’s in Baltimore right after the Lansdowne Festival”. The tune in G gets played at our session almost every week, and “Little Katie Taylor” is also quite common, but I’m having a job trying to introduce this one to my session friends.

You can smooth out bar 6 of the B-part if you want by playing |a2ge fedB|A…

Such a wonderful confusion of tunes.

Thanks for posting this one Mr. NTI. A whistle playing friend of mine has worked up the set Seamus plays and hopes I’ll join in on fiddle. I don’t mind playing the set straight off the cd with him, but I’m really looking forward to just getting these tunes under my belt. About got the Jackie Coleman’s one (not *that* Jackie Coleman’s! 🙂 in one sitting last night. The whiskey helped.

Will - we’ve been working on the same tune! I transcribed that Jackie Coleman’s off the CD for myself so thought I might as well post it in case it comes in handy: https://thesession.org/tunes/574#comment116427

No seriously, sorry for biting your head off 😉 I agree that “just because one person insists that something is correct doesn’t make it so”. Basically it looks like we’ll never know which tune is which, but in the end, it doesn’t matter does it? The important thing is that this is a great tune. I love the way it rises up in that 1st part and then sinks back down again like a wave.

Which tune is that, Mark? *cheshire grin*

This one Will:

X: 1
T: Who Gives A Scheidt?!
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
DEFA GEFE|DEFA defa…
(swelling up in a wave-like motion, so to speak)
|g2ed cAGE
(falling back down again, rather like a wading bird coming in to land in a peaceful estuary)
|FAGF EAGE|
D2FA GEFE|DEFA defa|g2ed cAGE|1 FAGE D3A:|2 FAGE D3c||
|:d2 (3fed adfa|bfaf gfed|cA~A2 BG~G2|AGFD EFGE|
defa g2fg|a2ge fdcA|ABce dcAG|1 (3FGA GE D3c:|2 (3FGA GE D3A||

*smirk*

LOL I especially like the wading bird part…

There’s a different version of this tune on Altan’s “Horse with a Heart”, first set, after “Three Scones of Boxty”.
There’s also a third version of it on a Mike & Mary Rafferty album.
I think the name question was straightened out on Irtrad-l some years ago (search the Irtrad-l archives) and that the D tune is actually “The Lansdowne Lass”.
I’ve got the Altan version in my collection as reel #296.

Your “Altan version”, is a different tune Henrik: https://thesession.org/tunes/2172.

I’m sorry, I didn’t know about the discussion here on TheSession. Now I’ll rename it in my collection.
But actually, I think the tunes are so similar, that it’s quite possible that Josie McDermott had heard “Little Katie Taylor” before composing “The Lansdowne Lass”, though he might not have been aware of it.

Doesn’t June NiCormack play this tune in A? Anybody know in what key it was written? And the connection with Billy McComiskey? Thanks-- Davie

June McCormack plays this in G on an Eb flute so it comes out in G#. Very nice playing. I don’t know of any connection to Billy MComiskey, sorry.

Only connection I could suggest between this tune and McComiskey is that Billy currently hails from Baltimore (USA).

The story I got from Billy and some of the other local musicians here in Baltimore is that Josie came to Baltimore years ago (in the eighties maybe), played at one of the local pubs (which is no longer in existence) and had such a great time that he handed Billy a piece of paper upon leaving and on it was this tune. Billy also recorded it with me on my CD along with Donna Long on piano, who I believe also may have met Josie on that visit to Baltimore. It’s since become one of our local favorites!

https://youtu.be/y-ZkQpyTf7c?t=1m20s

play video