The New Road reel

This is the first tune in a medley of three played by Maeve Donnelly. The third tune in this set I posted a few days ago, and is called "Delia Crowley’s." Once I can post the last tune in the medley, I think you all will find it makes a smashing set!

There are many variations on this tune I have found, but this version is the one Maeve plays on her recording, "Maeve Donnelly."

Enjoy!

Lynnsey

If you would like to hear this reel set, here is a free mp3 you can download from Maeve Donnelly’s page at www.irishfiddle.com. Here is the link: http://www.irishfiddle.com/maeve_donnelly.html

This is in O’Neill’s collection, and it’s recognizeably the same tune, with a little imagination - but I’d love to see versions in between that and this. Is anybody familiar with any??

This recording is roughly a 3-part single reel, and has beautiful flow. As written down by O’Neill, it’s a 2-part single reel that’s kind of grindey-repetetive. I can’t help but like Maeve Donnelly’s tune better (that’s a great album altogether!), but I’d be really interested to know how much of that is her personal variation and how much of that might be common to people who know the tune.

So here’s my question: who knows this tune in a non-Donnelly version, and what’s it like?

I believe this particular version of the tune comes from the playing of Paddy Fahy. Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington also recorded the same version of the tune and cite Fahy as the source in the notes of the recording. I haven’t got her recording, but it’s not unlikely Maeve Donnelly picked it up from her fellow East Galway fiddler. I heard another East Galway fiddler Breda Keville play it on the radio.

There’s a version in CRE vol 4 (113) from a manuscript by Sean Reid. That is I think a closer version to the one Claire and Breda Keville play on ‘The Hop Down’, that version shows a close relation with Corney is Coming.

Bronwyn de Paor plays a lovely setting in this clip (at about 6:41)
http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_241_final_highlights_from_2007/

it actually starts at about 9:09

Fantastic playing by Edel Fox (second one in the set after another great tune - Farewell to Miltown Malbay)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-csPt2ZlFF0

play video

Quite close to Paddy Fahey’s take on it, when the melody is concerned :-)

Lovely version from Dana Lyn, Patrick Ourceau and Eamonn O’Leary here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vah_k2QHLE

play video

Here is the version published by O’Neill in Dance Music of Ireland - 1001 Gems (1907), p. 98, no. 523 as New Road, An Botar nuad.

X:3 A fairly close transcription of the setting recorded by Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington on the album of the same name. Note the variations in the A part—bars 2-3 versus 5-7—played consistently three times through. The fiddle and box diverge somewhat in the C part. The setting here is what my ear took as the basic melody I’m driving across Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi for work this week and getting reacquainted with some favorite recordings. This has always been a standout for the confident, lilting sweetness of the playing. I wish Charlie Piggott would record more!

I got this wonderful reel off the new album of fiddler Jimmy Power’s music called “Go Home And Have Your Dinner”. As with many other tunes, the juxtaposition of F-naturals and F-sharps in the first part here is very effective. It’s a rather dramatic tune, and I find the first and third parts to be particularly so. I don’t see much similarity with the usual “College Groves” except perhaps in the second parts of both tunes. I assume “Roland” refers either to Imelda or to Raymond - wonder which one? Either way, this needs to be played more often.

Now that tune I’ve always known as "The New Road". You’ll find a setting in "O’Neill’s 1001".

Thanks Kenny. Perhaps this setting should be added to that tune?

It’s a fairly distinctive setting to my mind, but I agree with Kenny that this is The New Road, which happens already to be here: https://thesession.org/tunes/2630. This setting could be merged with that tune, I think.