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Johnny From Gandsey reel

Also known as Lead The Knave.

There are 7 recordings of this tune.

Johnny From Gandsey appears in 1 other tune collection.

Johnny From Gandsey has been added to 3 tune sets.

Johnny From Gandsey has been added to 71 tunebooks.

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Two settings

1
X: 1
T: Johnny From Gandsey
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Bmin
FBBA BdcB|AFEF A4|FB~B2 dBAF|ABde f3a|
bafa bafe|dBAB d3e|fgfe dBAF|1 FEFA B3A:|2 FEFA B3a||
bafa bafb|afef a3b|bafe dBAF|ABde f3a|
bafa bafe|dBAB d3e|fgfe dBAF|1 FEFA B3a:|2 FEFA B3A||
2
X: 2
T: Johnny From Gandsey
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Cmaj
AG|:E2 A2 AcBA|GEDE G2 G2|EA A2 cAGE|GAcd e2 a2|
agea aged|cAGA c3 d|efed dcAG|1 EDEG A2 AG:||2 EDEG A3|
a|:agea agea|age^f g2 gg|aged dcA^F|GAcd e2 a2|
agea aged|cAGA cBcd|efed dcAG|1EDEG A3a:||2 EDEG A2||

Seven comments

Johnny from Gandsey

Yesterday, I was listening to the recording of a radio programme and suddenly realised this tune is an Irish version of "John of Badenyon": https://thesession.org/tunes/1480 (In Cape Breton it’s known as "The Old Time Wedding Reel #1") It’s quite easy to see the resemblance between the two tunes, but this version is in Bm and has some quite different phrases including the very first bar, so I believe it’s worth posting as a distinct tune.

The playing of this tune on a radio programme was taken from a recent recording "Re-Joyce," on which Maire O’Keeffe, Jackie Daly, Donal O’Connor, and John Faulkner play almost forgotten tunes from the Joyce collection published in 19th century.

This isn’t the accurate transcription from their playing, but I changed it a little bit. Hope you enjoy this version of the tune.

P.S. I’ve just found the transcription from the Joyce Colletion in JC’s ABC tune finder. It’s in Ador, but I personally think the Bm version recorded on "Re-Joyce" sounds better. And I don’t want to play both the Irish and the Cape Breton versions in the same key simply because I might mix up the two versions in the future.

NOT composed by Arty McGlynn

This tune appears (in A minor) in the Joyce Collection (printed 1909, long before Arty McGlynn was born) as "Johnny from Gandsey", so even if Arty McGlynn thinks he composed it, he obviously didn’t.
Arty McGlynn must have heard it somewhere and then thought he composed it.

Johnny From Gandsey, X:2

Here’s a version I got from the internet a while back from a guy who called himself "sligo-man". He said he learnt it in his childhood and wrote it down some years later. I like the key it’s in, probably not too hard to get the f naturals on a D whistle with a bit of practise.