The Fair Haired Boy reel

I learned this one from the Cathal McConnell pennywhistle course. I think it is associated with the playing of Micho Russell. It’s a terrific tune to play at a medium tempo with a bit of lilt. Very satisfying. Triplet figures would also fit quite nicely into a few places to give a little extra bounce, if that suits you. It would probably make a fabulous concertina tune.

I just noticed this being played on an old private recording of New York fiddlers Lad O’Bierne and Louis Quinn.

Here’s the way Michael Hynes plays it on the recording he made with Dennis Liddy called, ‘Waifs And Strays (Traditional Irish Music From County Clare)’.

X: 1
T: Fair-Haired Boy, The
S: Michael Hynes
Z: Jack Gilder
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
~A3G FGAB|=cAdc BG~G2|ABAG FAdg|fdec Add2:|
~f2df efde|~f2df ecA2|~f2df efde|fdec Add2|
~f2df efde|~f2df ecA^G|ABcd efge|afge fdd2||

This has a similar A-part to Last Night’s Joy https://thesession.org/tunes/6010.

This appears to be the tune played on the Molloy-Keane-O’Flynn album "Fire Aflame" they list as "Micho Russell’s. A search for a reel named Micho Russell’s on TheSessions gives back many different tunes of that name — which only have in common the name itself!

As played by Gavin Whelan on his album In Full Flight (2009). As others did (noted above) he calls it "Micho Russell’s".

It’s also on the album Shifting Gravel by Four Men and a Dog (1993), and they too call it "Micho Russell’s". Mike Rafferty played the tune and called it "The Joyful Hour" (see the book Second Wind, 300 More Tunes from Mike Rafferty, 2009). It can be found in O’Neill’s Waifs and Stray of Gaelic Melody (1922) in D minor, but in my opinion it has benefitted from the addition of the F#.

It should be said that Micho Rusell recorded the tune as "The Fair Haired Boy" on The Russell Family Of Doolin, County Clare (https://thesession.org/recordings/544).

Michael Joseph Russell was born in Doonagore, County Clare on the 25th March 1915. His mother played concertina and his father was a sean-nos singer. At the age of eleven, after hearing a neighbour playing a whistle, he fell in love with the sound and his father brought him one from Ennistymon.

In the 1960s, Tony McMahon invited Micho to play in Dublin, which led to radio and television appearances, and Breandan Breathnach noted down hundreds of tunes from his playing. He went on to play around Europe and recorded quite a few albums. It’s a testament to his influence that so many tunes are simply known as "Micho Russell’s".