The Kerry Jig slide

I got this tune from the website (thanks Glauber!) for The Magic Square, a Boston-based band, composed of: Dave Cory on banjo, bodhran, guitar, and bouzouki; Dan Isaacson on flute, whistle, bouzouki; Breige Quinn on fiddle; and Ted Davis on guitar, flute, and banjo. This is from their new cd.

They say they learned Joe John’s from Tommy McCarthy and Louise Costello…and I keep thinking I know this tune by another name, and maybe even in another key. Either too many tunes, or too many years….

Anyway, I really like how this jig rollicks along, but still swings between contenment and longing (hey, at least I didn’t call it ‘sexy.’ 🙂.

My transcription here is based on the fiddling, but it’s a great tune for the whistle or flute as well.

You can hear a sound sample that includes this tune by going to: http://www.themagicsquare.com/index.html and clicking on “Music to Download.” There’s another sound file there, and also info on the band and their cd. Fun stuff. (I’m in no way affiliated with the band--just passing along the info.)

Dave Cory rocks!

Or tasty. You didn’t call it tasty, either, for which I’m very grateful. 🙂

Nice tune but somehow (I don’t know why) it feels more like a slide 12/8 time - maybe I’ve heard it before played this way under a different title.

Yeah, I was thinking slide too, but then got lazy and stuck with 6/8. Now it’s gonna bug me--I’m sure I know this by some other name…so what is it?

Some parallel’s to ‘Aoinhneas elis ni chellaigh’ of lunas fame - at the start of the tune, but that’s a slip ;.)

Kinda funny you mention Magic Square. I was just at a session (in Baltimore) last night, and Dan was there. I was quite impressed by his flute playing, and so about ten minutes ago, I emailed him to order a copy of the CD.

Isn’t this tune on the Chieftains “Water from the Well” CD? It seems to me that they play this tune before the Concertina Reel (I know, jig-reel, not usually how it works, but I’m pretty sure this is the tune I’m thinking of) on the track tited “Kilfenora Set”. The specific tunes are not listed in the liner notes though, so I could be wrong on this.

Is this the same as “John Joe Casey’s”, which Solas plays on its first album?

Definitely not John Joe Casey’s from Solas--different tune (though the name similarities had me checking that at first, too). And I don’t have a copy of Water from the Well, so maybe someone else can check that?

It rings a bell with me as the “Kilfenora Jig” too. It’s a good tune, though The Chieftains do it very slightly differently.

Tize

Yeah, I just checked, and verified my suspicion. This tune is indeed the first tune on the “Kilfenora Set” from Water from the Well. Like Tize said, there are a few slight differences, but it definitely is the same tune.

Casey & McGlynn - “Lead The Knave” - 2nd tune on “Brady’s ” set, but no name.

Key signature: A Dorian
Submitted on July 29th 2007 by Bannerman.

X: 1
T: John Joe’s
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: sli
K: A Dorian
A2 A AGE | A2 A AGE | G2 G GED | G3 E3 |
A2 A ABc | dBA G3 | GBd dcB |1 ~c3 ~B3 :|2 ~c3 c2 d ||
|: e2 e edc | e3 g3 | G2 G G2A | GED DEG |
A2 A ABc | dBA G3 | GBd dcB |1 ~c3 c2 d :|2 ~c3 ~B3 ||

This is another of those Kilfenora tunes which is sort of a cross between a slide and a single jig. It was on a recent CD by the new band but I can’t lay my hands on it. I think this setting is fairly close to how they play it.

This tune should go nicely with the Kilfenora Slide:
https://thesession.org/tunes/7541.

I’ve always considered that the melody in this tune is crying out to be played as a slide/single jig. For anyone who disagrees, then put the extra notes in and treat it as a double jig.

# Posted on July 29th 2007 by Bannerman

nice tune but for me, not a slide in any way. A nice bouncy double jig ideal for dancing to. Would not put it with Kilfenora though, different feel and length, not a good combination for a set for dancing. I’m glad to have found it through the link. Thanks ‘c’.

Sorry Dow, thanks to you.

“ Kerry Jig”
Key signature: b minor
Submitted on August 17th 2007 by matteo.

X: 3
T: “ Kerry Jig”
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: b minor
|: ~B3 BAF | ~B3 BAF | AcB AcB | AFE EFA |
~B3 Bcd | cBc ABA | Ace edc |[1 ~d3 dcA :|[2 ~d3 ~d3 |]
|: ~f3 fed | ~f3 ~a3 | AcB AcB | AFE EFA |
~B3 Bcd | cBc ABA | Ace edc |[1~d3 ~d3:|[2 ~d3 dcA |]

“no comment” ~ the contributor for this take couldn’t be bothered to comment… 😏

…I got this version (“kerry jig”) from elandir’s cd “do you know eddy kelly?” it’s part of a set they call “the kerry Jigs”

Lucy Farr: Heart and Home
Article MT104 - from Musical Traditions No 12, Summer 1994
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/farr.htm

C: Lucy Farr, or so the claim goes, however ~ while I learned this as a slide, from several sources, and one ascribed it to Luch Farr, as so many things have when she couldn’t remember a source or a name, this is much older than Lucy and can be found in the O‘Neill collection “1001 Gems: The Dance Music of Ireland”, under Miscellaneous, page 171, tune #991 ~ “The Kerry Jig” - or ’slide’…

S: Michael Sexton

S: “1001 Gems: The Dance Music of Ireland”, Capt. Francis O’Neill, page 171, tune #991
In the book everything in jig time, double or single or slide, is given as 6/8. I’ve dropped a few bars to make it 12/8, a ‘Kerry’ jig… 😎

It’s a slip jig not a slide. :]

Just my variation of the tune. It sounds very nice on mandolin.

This was recorded by Leo Rowsome on the “King of the Pipers” LP as a SINGLE jig, paired with The Ballintore Fancy, another single jig (but, like this tune, transcribed here as a slide).

From the playing of Grey Larsen & André Marchand.

On his website, Grey says of the tune:
“John Joe Lynch was a concertina and fiddle player from the townland of Clogher, three miles from Kilfenora in County Clare, and this jig bears his name. He did not compose the tune, but he loved to play it on the concertina and it has always been associated with him.”

I love this tune. Heard it played by Chris McMullan in between Humours of Ballyloughlin and Fraher’s (which I think is also a single jig?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnmdDKbTg5E

play video

To me it sounds like a single jig. Not a double jig and not quite a slide.