The Maids Of Castlebar reel

Learned this tune from John McEvilly at Clonmel in August 2003.
Trevor

I should perhaps mention that John played the tune at least three times during the workshop so that we could record it. Each time he would play it slowly and then straight into full speed. The slow speed invariably included all the ornaments and the swing of the music, and the full-speed was a real performance in which he might slightly modify the ornaments or series of notes in the spirit of the moment. The ABC you see here is my transcription of one of his “slow” play-throughs, modified by what he did in the full-speed immediately following.
Trevor

The swing John McEvilly puts into this reel, as he also did with most of the other reels he played at Clonmel, pushes the tune towards hornpipe (but not quite). He played the g# at the very beginning of the B-part as a fast slide to the high a.
Trevor

Thanks Trevor - a lovely reel. In the past I’ve steered away from it because I had a problem with the similarity between the “B” part of the tune and that of the “Maid Behind the Bar”. However, it’s such a good tune that it’s worth making the effort to differentiate between them and I’ll persevere with the practice until I get it sorted!

Yes, Bannerman, there is a close resemblance between the first 4 bars of the B-part of the two tunes, and the resemblance of the B-parts is even slightly closer if you look at a version of the “Maids” on J-C’s website. However, what John McEvilley does is to emphasise the g#-a slide at the beginning of the B-part, and this tends to steer your ear away from Maid Behind the Bar, and in the last-but-one bar of the B-part he does that startling brief excursion into A-major, which again emphasises the difference between the tunes. That A-major bar does not occur in the J-C version, which sits firmly in D-major at that point.
The tune goes well with The Pretty Girls of Mayo, which he taught us and which I’m going to transcribe and post in the next few days.
BTW, John McEvilley was taught by Paddy Ryan. He is a young man (early 20’s?) from Co Mayo. A name to keep an eye on.
Trevor

For comparison, here are other versions of this tune from Henrik Norbeck’s collection:

X:471
T:McFarley’s
R:reel
H:See also “The Girls of Castlebar”, #597
D:Paddy Glackin: In Full Spate
D:Altan: Harvest Storm
Z:id:hn-reel-471
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
dD~D2 EDB,E|D2FA BAFA|dDcD BDAD|EDFA BAFA|
dD~D2 EDB,E|D2FA BAFA|(3Bcd ec dBAF|1 EDEF DFAc:|2 EDEF D2ag||
|:fgab afde|fd~d2 bdad|efga ge=cd|e=c~c2 acge|
fgaf bfaf|gfeg fdB^c|defd ecdB|1 AFEF D2ag:|2 AFEF D2 (3ABc||
“Version 2:”
|:dD~D2 EDB,D|D2FA BAFA|dDcD BDAD|EDAD BAFA|
[1 dD~D2 EDB,D|D2FA BAFA|(3Bcd ec dBAF|EDEF D2 (3ABc:|
[2 “also F3D E3F” DEFD EDB,D|D2FA BAFA|(3Bcd ec dBAF|EDEF D2ag||
|:fgab afde|fdad bdad|efga ge=cd|e=cgc acge|
fgaf bfaf|gfeg fdB^c|defd ecdB|1 AFEF D2ag:|2 AFEF D2 (3ABc||

and,

X:597
T:Girls of Castlebar, The
T:Maids of Caslebar, The
R:reel
D:Frankie Gavin: Frankie Goes to Town
D:Shaskeen: 25th Silver Jubilee Collection
Z:id:hn-reel-597
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
dD~D2 EDCE|D2FA BAFA|dDcD BDAF|DEFD EDB,D|
FD~D2 EDB,E|D2FA BAFA|dgfe dBAG|F2EF D4:|
|:a2ga fd~d2|fdad fddf|gebe geef|gebe gece|
fdad bdad|fgec dBcA|Bcde fdec|dBAG FDD2:|
“variations”
|:dD~D2 EDB,A,|D2FA BAFA|d2cd BdAF|DEFD EDB,D|
~F3D EDEF|D2FA BAFA|dfec dBAF|GFEG FDD2:|
|:a2^ga fdde|fdad fddf|gebe geef|gebe geeg|
fd~d2 ~g3e|fdec dcBA|Bcde f2ef|dBAG FDD2:|


Trevor

X: 1
S: As played by Martin Ruane (1894 - 1986)
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: D
(3Abc | d2 D2 (3FED B,A, | D2 FA BAFA | dB{d}BA BAFD | GE{G}ED EDB,D |
| FDDF EDCE | D2 FA BAFA | df{a}fe dcdB | AFEG FDD2 |
|D2 (3DDD (3FED B,A, | D2 FA BAFA | dB{d}BA BAFD | GE{G}ED EDB,D |
| [F4A4] [E4A4] | D2 FA BAFA | df{a}fe dcdB | AFEG FDD2 ||
|: a2 ^ga fddd | fdad fddd | gebe geee | gebe gfeg |
| fddd Addd | face dcBA | Bcde (3faf ec |1 dBAG FDD2 :|2 dBAG FD (3ABc ||

Just learnt this tune from Kieran Hanrahan’s album. Great swing in it. The beginning few bars remind of “Hand me Down the Tackle” (except this tune is based around the low octave, not the high octave).

This is my approximation of Kieran Hanrahan’s version.

X:5 from Paddy Killoran’s 78, as transcribed by David Lyth in the book “Bowing Styles in Irish Fiddle Playing;” X:6 from John Vesey, Sligo Fiddler 2CD. Killoran’s record popularized this tune, but no one seems to play his setting; the a2^ga f(3ddd motif wandered in at some point, Sean Maguire perhaps, sounds like something he would come up with.

Vesey played Killoran’s medley of Roaring Mary/Maids of Castlebar but had this very distinct setting of the 2nd reel which I’ve only captured in part, at various points he would mix up parts of what he played; listen to the recording to hear more. Where he got this is a mystery, it sounds very much like the elaborate settings Coleman played of Bonnie Kate or Miss Monaghan. John learned the fiddle from Michael Gorman, and was friends with other Sligo fiddlers like Martin Wynne, too.

Some nice versions:

Tony McMahon and Noel Hill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlg7PMTklQ4

play video

Andy McGann:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEgp8gtnNZg

play video

I just heard Ronan Le Bars, a French piper play this tune and I don’t think this is a great piping tune.

This is the tune as played by the Kilfenora Ceili Band.

Version 1 of abc s listed below .

Version 2 of abc s listed below x471. I like to see the dots of the various settings.

This is a hybrid of all the versions available . Line 1 and line 3 are the same except for bar 3. These 2 lines can be alternated , or repeated . Tony Mc Mahon and Stoctons Wing repeat line 1 the second time. Others do the opposite and some play it as above alternating the two.