Jenny Picking Cockles reel

On “ Compendium “ -Best of album

This transcription has been given the wrong key sig. It shouldn’t have B flats. This is why I complain about people cutting & pasting direct from Henrik Norbeck’s tune index (where the correct version is, by the way). You’re simply lifting the transcription with complete disregard for - and lack of understanding of - it’s content. Shame cuz it’s such a great tune.

X: 1
T: Jenny Picking Cockles
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmix
fagf dc~c2|Bcde f2fa|g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AGG^F|
Gg~g2 dc~c2|Bcde f2fa|g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AGG^F||
K: Gmaj
Gg~g2 bgag|fd~d2 fdcA|dgga bgag|fdcA AGGB|
dgga bgag|f2ga fdga|bgaf gbag|fdcA G2g2||

That was from Altan’s Blackwater.

Sorry those first Fs should have been # - try again with header this time:

X: 1
T: Jenny Picking Cockles
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
S: Altan: Blackwater
R: reel
K: Gmix
^fagf dc~c2|Bcde f2fa|g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AGG^F|
Gg~g2 dc~c2|Bcde f2fa|g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AGG^F||
K: Gmaj
Gg~g2 bgag|fd~d2 fdcA|dgga bgag|fdcA AGGB|
dgga bgag|f2ga fdga|bgaf gbag|fdcA G2g2||

Turns out those Fs are nats 3rd and last time thru. Sounds good both ways.

Here’s a transcription from Larry Sanger’s site that comes from a Neillidh Boyle 78:

X:4
T:Jenny Picking Cockles
R:reel
C:Traditional
S:Neillidh Boyle
A:Dungloe, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Z:Transcribed by Larry Sanger from a tape of the old 78 rpm record of N. Boyle.
M:C|
K:C
~g2||fagf dc~c2|Bcde {a}fe{a}+A2.f2+|~g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AG~G2|[G,G]B~g2
dc~c2|Bcde {a}fe{a}[A2.f2]|~g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AG~G2|[G,G]B~g2 dc~c2|Bcde
{a}fe{a}[A2.f2]|~g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AG~G2|[G,G]B~g2 dc~c2|Bcde
{a}fe{a}[A2.f2]|~g2fg dc~c2|Acfc AG~G2||:\
K:G
|:dg~g2 bgag|fd~d2 [df]d[dg][df]|[d2g2][dg][df] gbag|fdcd BG~G2|dg~g2
bgag|~f2ga fddg|bg~a2 gfga|fdcA [G,G]B~g2:|

The setting by b.maloney seems to be so different as to be a another tune altogether than the other ones. That version is the tune I was expecting to find under Jenny’s Picking Cockles and it’s certainly the setting played by le Ceoltóiri Cultúrlainne (item 16 under the ‘recordings’ link). I wonder which versions the other recordings use?

I just listened to the 17 recordings of Jenny Picking Cockles in my iTunes library. All except one is basically the tune posted by Brad Maloney. That includes Danny O’Mahony, Willie Clancy, Leon Agnew/Pat O’Connor/Dave Flynn, Willie Kelly/Mike Rafferty/Donal Clancy, Cohmaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Troy MacGillivray, Jimmy Power, Tommy McCarthy, Joe Derrane/Carl Hession, Ronan Browne/Peter O’Loughlin, Terry Bingham, Patrick Street, Tulla Ceili Band, Conor McCarthy/Christie Barry/Cyril O’Donoghue, Mike Rafferty, Chris Sherburn/Denny Bartley, Graham Dunne, and Frankie Gavin.

Only Roisin McGrory/Damian Harrigan from one of the Fiddle Music of Donegal discs is the other very different setting from Dr. Dow and others.

I’ve recordings of these fellows having at this reel:

David Power
Jimmy Power
Joe Cooley
Joe Derrane
Kevin Burke
Martin O’Connor
Mick and Denis O’Brien
Mike Rafferty
Neil O’Boyle
Peter Carberry
Peter Laban
Robbie Hannon
Ronan Browne and Peadar O’Loughlin
Sean McKiernan
Sean Reid and Peadar O’Loughlin
Sean Talty
Sean Talty and Eamonn McGivney
Terry Bingham
Tomas and Seosamh O’Ceannabhain
Willie Clancy
Willie Kelly & Mike Rafferty with Donal Clancy

B Maloney’s version is the one in D is the one in O’Neill’s in all probability don’t care to bother to check is the one Willie Clancy liked to play is the one most often recorded here. Neillidh Boyle called the tune he played after the Pigeon on the Gate Jenny Picking Cockles which is transcribed above in a variety of ways which is occasionally heard still which should have its own entry as the relation between these tunes is a bit tenuous.

For cross-reference, the B Maloney version is a setting of this Jenny Picking Cockles: https://thesession.org/tunes/1357

I often wonder if some of the many variations came about after listening to someone play Jenny’s Welcome To Charlie and mistaking it for Jenny Picking Cockles. To me, both tunes are varients of each other.
https://thesession.org/tunes/370

Like Tomb (above), I’ve wondered about a connection between this tune and ‘Jenny’s welcome to Charlie’, since they sort of overlap. Maybe someone who knows the language could tell us what the titles are in Irish Gaelic: perhaps the two tune names in English are derived from different (or mistaken) translations from an original. Waddya think?

As played by “No. 2 Patrick Street” on the album “Patrick Street”. An Gabhran and Jack Keane’s Reel follow.

Patrick Street version

See Ceol Rince na hÉireann II.277 for a Sliabh Luachra version collected from Mrs Murphy in Ballydesmond. She called it the Old Slipper Shoe ((An tSeanbhróigín Bhog) Denis Murphy’s name for it was Johnnie Seán the Rake. It’s maybe sufficiently different to merit a separate entry if currently being played in a session.