Molloy’s Favourite reel

Molloy being Matt Molloy, recorded with Kevin Burke on the album ‘Up Close’. Played with The Bloom of Youth and The Cabin Hunter, the set persuaded me to abandon all my efforts with the pipes and take up the flute instead.

I think this one pre-dates Matt as it was included in David Lyth’s Bowing Styles (Book 1) where - it normally follows Maude Millar. This comes from the Sligo tradition of Coleman, Morrison and Killoran who recorded mainly in the 1920s and 30s.

In Baltimore sessions, a fairly common set starts with Lady Anne Montgomery, goes in Maude Millar’s, then ends with Molloy’s Favourite. Guess Bannerman’s explanation gives a bit of insight into the grouping of the last two tunes together.

This tune’s also recorded on Fianna’s brilliant album - Crame On. It’s an excellent version of the tune - just a few little variations that make it extra stunning!

This is one of the tunes I learned from memory just after leaving West Yorkshire 2 years ago. It was, and probably is still, played after Lady Anne Montgommery and Maude Miller whenever a bunch of musicians are crammed together in a pub. Here’s the version:

K: D
d2Ad fdAF|GFEF GABc|d2Ad fdAF|GBAG FDDc|
d2de fdAF|GFEF GABc|d2Ad fdAF|GBAG FDD2||
~g3f gbag|fgaf gfef|~g3f gbag|(3fga eg fddc|
dfaf gbag|fgaf gfeg|fdec dcBA|^GABc d=gfe||

Glad to know some other people play a very similar one in a different place: http://www.liamhart.org/session/tunes/lh_reels.abc (at the bottom) The file was found at the Irish American Association of Northwest Jersey’s session website: http://www.liamhart.org/session/#3

According to the book ‘Second Wind-300 More Tunes from Mike Rafferty’, this tune was composed by Paddy Killoran:

"Mike suggests it may have been named either after Tony Molloy the great flute player from Loughrea, or named after Matt Molloy’s father."

B part looks close as that of Noisy Curlew https://thesession.org/tunes/1432