The Achonry Lasses reel

This tune comes from a recording made in the 20’s by Sligo fiddler Tom Gannon and it appears on the Michael Gorman cd set from Topic.

He followed it with a nice version of the Five Mile Chase but had another name for it.

This is on the Planxty LP Words and Music. Doesn’t show up on the details page because of a typo

Concertinas can do some nice things to the first bar in this one:

K: Gmaj
|G3B C3D|dzcA BGAF|GBAF DE (3FGA|decA (3Bcd AF|
[D3G3]B [G,3C3]D|dBcA BGAF|GBAF DE (3FGA|d2cA BG~G2||
gzag fd~d2|eccB cdef|g2ag fddf|ecAc BGGf|
gzag fd~d2|eccB cdef|gbag (3fga fd|ecgc (3Bcd AF||

From "words and music " by Planxty

The name Planxty used, and the name under which it is in CRE 2, is Anchonry Lasses. it is however an ed reavey tune: The Loughs of Cavan

A slip there: Achonry it is.

There are a few tunes in the Reavy collection for which Ed Reavy’s authorship is questionable. Others that are clearly only his setting of older tunes. As Michael Gorman recorded "The Achonry Lasses" in the late 1920s, I would tend to place this one in the latter category.

X: 1
T: The Achonry Lasses
S: Tom Gannon, on Michael Gorman’s "The Sligo Champion - The Fiddle Music of County Sligo"
N: Mislabelled as "Anchonry"
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
G3B A=F~F2|dBcA BGAF|GBAF DEFA|dBcA (3Bcd AF|
G3B A=F~F2|dBcA BGAF|GBAG FGAc|dBcA BGGB||
g3g fddf|eccB cdef|g2ag fddB|cedc BGGB|
gbag fddf|eccB cdef|gbag fafd|cedc BdcA||

I’ve been playing track 10 of Seamus Tansey’s "Easter Snow" over and over again trying to identify the 1st tune. Seamus deliberately overblows the tunes high on the whole recording so it’s almost impossible to identify some of them. I finally resorted to transcribing it and then bringing the octave down to see if I could "see" the tune contour, and suddenly realised it was a different version of a tune I’m already familiar with. Makes sense too - James Gannon was the father of Tom whose playing I transcribed above from the Gorman CD. Anyway, now that I’ve identified the tune, I might as well post the transcriptions I did.

X: 1
T: Jimeen Gannon’s Favourite
S: Seamus Tansey - Easter Snow
N: Overblown notes taken out and notes inserted in place of breaths for easy comparison with Achonry Lasses
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
~G3B DG~G2|dBcA (3Bcd AF|DFAD FADA|dBcA (3Bcd AF|
~G2BG DG~G2|dBcA (3Bcd AF|DF~F2 ~F3A|dBcA BGG2:|
|:gd~d2 fd~d2|edcB cdef|~g2fa gedg|(3fed cA AGG2|
gb~b2 fadg|edcB cdef|~g2af gedg|edcA AGG2:|

X: 1
T: Jimeen Gannon’s Favourite
S: Seamus Tansey - Easter Snow
N: Close transcription - overblown notes left in
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
~g3B dg~g2|dzcA (3Bcd AF|dfad fadz|dBcA (3Bcd AF|
~g2bg dg~g2|dzcA (3Bcd AF|df~f2 ~f3a|dBcA BGGz:|
|:gd~d2 fd~d2|ezcB cdef|(3gag fa (3gfe dz|(3fed cA AGGz|
gb~b2 fadg|edcB cdef|gzaf gedg|edcA AGGz:|

Sorry, that should have been Jimeen Gannon’s Delight, not Favourite. Same difference 🙂

How I play this tune.

Another version.