Up Sligo jig

That’s what Brian Conway calls it on “First through the Gate” I know it pops up on Michael Colemans 78’s but I don’t know what he called it. Harry Bradley recorded a very similar tune on the opening track of “As carelessly I did stray…” he called it the “Castlebar Races”. It’s really simple but has enough play on the Gmaj EMin to make it juicy. On the fiddle I like to slur into the “on” beats & break the bow on the 2nd & 3rd then slur back into the onbeats with lots of lilt. Gives it that Sligo feel, after all it is “Up Sligo!”

Refer to “Up Sligo” already posted 2/9/2002 for more background. Vesey and Coleman didn’t call this part anything; it was just the second part of Up Sligo as far as they were concerned.

These two “Up Sligo”-s are two different tunes. The one that was posted earlier is usually called “The Creel of Turf” it’s in Emin.

Here’s the link to the tune Harry Bradley recorded as “The Castlebar Races”: https://thesession.org/tunes/1205

This one is also in e minor…

This variant of “The Castlebar Races” is recorded on Peter Horan and Gerry Harrington’s duet album “Fortune Favours the Merry.” It seems the common setting of the tune is the one posted by Dow some years ago: https://thesession.org/tunes/1160

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdLvRocBEAU&feature=related

play video

Played here by John Wynne and John McEvoy from about 3.10

Teada also recorded this jig on their second album, and in the sleeve notes of the recording Oisin Mac Diarmada informs that this is actually a two-part version of the five-part jig The Lark’s March (aka. the Geese in the Bog): https://thesession.org/tunes/5867

In fact, Harry Bradley recently recorded it as The Geese in the Bog.

This is the Up Sligo tune on Seamus Tansey’s King of the Concert Flute, Track 10#2.

I have posted Up Sligo under the title Creel of Turf , aka Green Meadow /The Unfortunate Rake. There is some confusion re its correct title.