East Clare reel

I learned this off the playing of Michael McGoldrick, adapted to fall under my fingers on fiddle. The version I heard was fairly slow and swingy, and that’s still how I like to play it. It also plays well on a C whistle.

Nice one Will, I was playing through it a few times on my flute and then slid into The Maids of Mitchelstown without any effort. S’fun.

I think it’s on Mary MacNamara’s "Traditional Music from East Clare." I don’t remember the name.

Oh, yes, it’s listed as McGreevy’s Favourite. It seems associated with Chicago fiddle player Johnny McGreevy, who used to visit Co. Clare.

This was also on John Vesey’s Shanachie album, where he just absolutely played the beejeezus out of it. His title was "McGlinchey’s Fancy" - not one of Breandan’s tunes though, I assume?
This is one of those tunes pipers don’t know about and are really missing out on, it has heaps of scope for going well on the chanter.

Also played in Dmix.

Hey Will, there’s a great fiddle version of this in D mix on Randal Bay’s CD, "Out of the Woods." Have you heard it?

This tune is called Charlie Mulvihill’s on Tripswitch’s CD. It’s a nice one on a low D whistle and great for practicing F naturals.

As a lazy fluter I’d rather play this tune in Dmix with F sharps. I believe Mary MacNamara recorded it in Dmix with PJ Hayes, and Harry Bradley and Paul O’Shaughnessy recenly did in the flute-friendly key too.

I know you’re not all talk ~ so, where’s your transcript already? 😉

You can find a very neat transcription of Randal Bay’s version of the tune in Dmix at JC’s tune finder, where it’s listed as X:210 "McGreevy’s". MacNamra & Hayes’ version and Bradley & O’Shaughnessy version are pretty close to it.

That’s not good enough… 😏

I’ve been busy!

Submitted on October 10th 2005 by Ptarmigan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/5060

Yeah, busy, that’s why you’ve been spending so much time here lately, doing research for your thesis? ~ 😉

Here’s a flute-friendly version based on Harry Bradley and Paul O’Shaughnessy’s playing:

K: Dmix
D2FA d2cA|GEED EFGB|Add^c d=cAB|1 cAGE EDCE:|2 cAGE EDD2||
aged cded|cBcd eg~g2|aged cded|cAGE EDD2|
edeg aged|dcAB c2Bc|ADFD EGAB|cAGE EDCE||

They actually recorded it double. Mary MacNamara’s version is pretty much the same except for the ending:

edeg aged|dcAB cAGB|A=FFE FGAB|cAGE EDCE||

There is a mistake in my transcription of Bradley/O’Shuaghnessy version. They actually played the tune as a double reel while Mary MacNamara and P.J. Hayes recorded it as a single reel. I heard it played both ways in several different places, but found it’s played as a double reel more often.

The version I often hear and play in Tokyo is something like this:

K: Dmix
|:D2FA d2cA|GEED EFGB|Add^c d=cAB|cAGE EDCE|
D2FA d2cA|GEED EFGB|Add^c d=cAB|cAGE EDD2:|
|:aged cded|~c3d eg~g2|aged cded|cAGE EDD2|
ed e/f/g aged|dcAB cAGE|=F3E FGAB|1 cAGE EDD2:|2 cAGE EDCE|]

I think I heard the tune in London or Dublin recently, and found the local version there was basically the same. I like the F natural note toward the end even though I play the keyless flute.