My Mind Will Never Be Easy slip jig

I first heard this tune on a public radio broadcast of Martin Hayes playing at the Washington Irish Festival (some years ago at Wolftrap, I believe). I don’t know if any recordings of this tune exist, but it is in the Krassen edition of O’Neill’s, in Eminor, and missing the nuances Hayes gave it in his performance. It goes well at slow march or even air pace, almost haltingly, as befits the title. The crux of the tune for me is the fnatural in the downhill run in measure 3 of Part B–as haunting as all of Samuel Barber’s famous adagio in Gm.

I learned this one from Brenda Stubbert (of Cape Breton) as a single jig. She picked it up from her father’s playing and that of Angus Chisholm. Their title is “My mind will never be Aisy” but she had no idea of what it might mean. Obviously “Easy” makes a lot more sense.

She plays it Cape Breton style as a single jig on her CD “Some Tasty Tunes”. The tune is slightly different. SHe plays it with the “Northside Kitchen jig (quite popular up there and composed by Johnny Wilmot) and another tune composed by Brenda.

I could find the dots (and abc) if anyone is interested.

gf|e2B BAB G2A|B2d deB dgf|e2B BAB G2A|B2e efd egf|
e2B BAB G2A|B2d deB d2B|def gdB G2A|B2e efd e2e|
|:def gaf g2d|B2d deB d2B|deg age dBA|1 B2e efd e2e :|2 B2e efd e|

This is what I have been playing for months, a mixture of Dervish and Michael McGoldrick’s version (the former is available at Sessioneer, the latter at JC’s).

Angelina Carberry and Martin Quinn recently recorded this tune as “Happy to Meet and Sorry to Part,” and their setting in G major is very close to mine posted above.

There is double jig version as well: https://thesession.org/tunes/1154

I’ve been thinking this tune should not have been posted in Amin. This tune actually appears in many recordings under different titles and is almost always played in G. Just once I heard it played in a weird key, that is, Amaj. The Scots fiddler told me the melody was originally taken from an old Scots song and he transposed it into that key. It was many months ago, so you can’t trust my memory though. Teada recorded it as “Port na Deoraí,” having taken it from Sean O Riada’s recording.

P.S. “Maude Miller” might be a reel version of this tune. Try playing this slip jig as an introduction to the reel, and you’ll see what I mean.

This slip jig/ reel arrangement was recorded by the London band “Le Cheile” way back in the 70s. As far as I recall, the reel version was called “Doorin’s Blacksmith” which I know I play under some other name, but forget which. It was not the tune “Maude Miller” as I know it.

It seems I still can’t persuade Will to play this tune in G, but I won’t stick to the original key any more. Try playing it in Bm: it’s also a nice key for the tune.

I happen to come across the transcription of Brenda Stubbert’s version of the tune: http://www.cranfordpub.com/tunes/Scottish/MyMindNever_Aisy.htm You can also listen to her playing it.

I usually play these common slip jigs after it:
Na Ceannabhain Bhana: https://thesession.org/tunes/612
A Fig for a Kiss: https://thesession.org/tunes/750

This should not be linked here as it’s a very different setting! Sweeney’s Men recorded the same version as ‘The Exile’s Jig’ on their first album. This is somewhere else on the site.

Get it sorted!!

https://thesession.org/tunes/1327 It’s a slightly different version of one and the same tune, I believe.

K: Amaj
ag|fec cBc A2B|c2e efc eag|fec cBc A2B|1 c2f fge f:|2 c2f fge f2f||
efg a2a gfe|c2e efc e2c|efa baf ecB|1 c2f fge f2f:|2 c2f fge f||

I believe this is very close to the tasty version of the tune I heard in Sandy Bells in Edinburgh around one year ago. Some of you might love the tune in A major while I myself can’t play it in the key on my keyless flute.

slainte, that’s a tune commonly known in Scotland as “Woo’d an’ Merrit An A’”.

Nigel, do you know the lyrics for the melody?

Easy to find through Google, my old friend!

http://cityofoaks.home.netcom.com/tunes/WoodAndMarriedAndA.html

Alan Mc Donald, the Scottish Small Pipes player played a version of this in Amaj with Angelina Carberry and Tony Mc Mahon in their Irish tour a year or two ago….whether being humourous or whatever, he christened it the such title above!

That will be Allan MacDonald

http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/tuition/tutors/allan-macdonald/

I’ve just come across this because of a recent post by Random. Firstly, “aisy” makes perfect sense. It’s the word used in O’Neill’s. It’s just an old form of the word “easy”. Still used by a lot of people in Ireland.

Secondly, I’ve only ever heard this tune *without* the note that Will says is the crux of it - no F at all, whether flat or sharp. (And a similar gap when the tune is played, as it commonly, but not always, is, in Em/G rather than, as here, in Am/C.)

The national origin of this tune is uncertain. It appears in The Gesto Collection of Highland Music, which predates the O’Neill collection, as “Brouges An’ Brochan An’ A”.

I’ve added the version I play on my border pipes, I know it as ‘Wooed an Married an a’. I can’t remember where i got it from but it is similar to the version in Gordon Mooney’s ‘The Choicest Bagpipe Music From the Scottish Borders and Lowlands’. I can’t quite tell if it works best with G or Bm chords but I’ve added Amix as the key since it’s a pipe version.

This tune often comes to mind as I’m dealing with my mom who has Alzheimer’s - her mind is never easy - like a slip jig, she goes around and around, returning to the same anxious concern - unable to be reassured - never easy – never able to find peace –

Enjoy your loved ones and your life in the here and now because the end of your life might be a blank, empty fade to the end of the track.

A setting from the playing of Siobhán Peoples.

From the playing of Ali Levack in Project Smok’s EP Horizons. Played on an F whistle. This benefits from being played at a slow, air-like pace.