Lad O’Beirne’s reel

I heard this tune at a session in Boston a month ago. I’ve been obsessing about it since.
I love the way it flows into and out of minor in the first part. I found it on Josphine Marsh’s
first album, and later on one of Sharon Shannon’s. At the Boston session I was amazed that
the flute player was dead-on note for note. F is tricky even on a keyed flute, and there are
some tough passages in this tune. I’ve been playing it on a C whistle (G fingers) to get the
notes in my head. Maybe eventually I’ll move it to the flute.

This is just a beautiful tune—you’re right about how it flirts with the minor in the A part, and then waxes lyrical in the B part. A nice fiddle tune (I’ll leave it alone on my keyless flute 🙂. Great post!

No doubt this is a beautiful tune, but I prefer playing George White’s Favourite on my keyless flute. There is some similarity between the two tunes.

Gosh, i just heard this tune at a session in California, can’t remember if it was Jack’s or Marla’s session at the Plough or if it was John Sherry’s out in Kensington…yay, now I can learn it! (I didn’t have a recorder with me. Bad girl. No biscuit.)

I presume you mean tape or mini-disc recorder, Zina !Welcome back.

LOL — yes, Kenny, that was it. Ta very much, it’s lovely to be back home.

listening to this tune on Sharon Shannon’s "Live in Galway", it seems somewhat different. more like this, as far as i can make it out (it’s quite fast!):

X:2316
T: Lad O’Beirne’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Fmaj
d2cA dAcA | GcAF GFDF | CF~F2 CFAc | dcde fagf |
d2cA dAcA | GcAF GFDF | CFAc DFBd |1 cbag f3e :|2 cbag f3g ||
a2gf afgf | defd cBAB | c3d cdfa | g3a g2fg|
afgf afgf | defd cBAB | c3d cdfa | g3a f3g |
afgf afgf | defd cBAB | c3d cdfa | g3a bagf |
afge f3e | defd cAFD | CFAc DFBd | cbag f3e ||

Would anyone have a transcription of Roger Sherlocks take on this tune as played in the YouTube link :

http://youtu.be/ZdfU2Gc1ZlE

play video

If anyone could help on this one would be very much appreciated….

By far the nicest for version of this tune for me as flute/tin whistle player…. 🙂

I’ve been hearing this tune played in D major quite a bit recently. It’s a lot nicer on the flute in D despite having to pop all the low register notes.

Heard something like this version on the whistle and worked it out - it’s quite fun.

@RobbieC86
Years later, I know, but I’ve only just come to exploring the Lad O’Beirne reels… The first tune Roger Sherlock plays on that video under Lad O’Beirne’s name is not this same tune at all - not even a variant of it in a different tonality. There is some resemblance in the A music, but the B music is completely different. It doesn’t seem to be especially close melodically to any of the other reels I’ve managed to find going under L O’Bs name, though the figure shapes seem to be characteristic of tunes associated with him. I also couldn’t find this reel by any other name, no matter how I searched for it, here, via Tunepal, using other online ABC search resources….
However, if you scroll through all the comments on YouTube the tune is in fact identified as Sherlock’s take (which he must have associated with L O’B) on Paddy Killoran’s version of the Mason’s Apron- cf X:3 of https://thesession.org/tunes/74

Whatever, it’s a grand tune/version of a tune!
I’ve done a transcription of which I’ll add the ABC in this comment, but I’m not going to add it to this tune page or post it elsewhere on the Session. I have included some of Sherlock’s variations within the notation. You can download it as one of my printable notation documents with both staff and ABC notation here: https://app.box.com/s/uinthutff9urmur3rb8pa0t8ouu0muod

X:666
T:Lad O’Beirne’s
S:Roger Sherlock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdfU2Gc1ZlE

play video

R:Reel
L:1/8
M:C
K:G
dB ~B2 AEGE & x4 AE ~E2|DEGA B2 AG & x4 Bc/B/ Az|EA ~A2 BA ~A2|BA Bc/d/ e2 ge| d/e/d BE x4 & dB ~B2 AEGE|
DEGd BAGz|[1 GABd gfge & x4 gffe| dBAB G2 ge:|]2GABd g2 eg & x4 gfg/f/e|dBAB ~G2 {E//}GA|]
|:B/A/GGF "_(~)"G2 dG|~G2 dG eG d2 & AGdG x4|Be ~e2fe ~e2|Beed e2 ed|BG ~G2 EGDG|
BGDG EG d2|1 cBcd e2 ge|dBAB ~G2 {E//}GA:|]2 cBcd edge|dBAB G2 ge|]

From Sean O’Brien’s recording