The Blooming Meadows jig

Can’t remember where this came from, but I was reminded of it when I heard a recording of Cathal Hayden playing it. Reminds me in places of "Coppers & Brass" and "The Hag At The Spinning Wheel".

Similar to The High Part of the Road

https://thesession.org/tunes/183

I read this jig was first recorded by the Old Ballinakill Ceili Band of E. Galway in 1920s or 1930s.

nice set on Catherine Mcevoy’s cd with Brendan Tonra’s

Learnt this jig in the fifties/sixties. A ‘must have’ three part jig much played in the London of the sixties. Also the title of a book by Fintan Vallely

This tune (or at least the A and B parts of it) are played on a "Champions of Ireland - Bodhran" album, but it’s listed there as The Flowing Tide. Took a bit of searching to pin it down to this jig but great to find it at last! 🙂 On that recording this tune is followed by Dingle Regatta and The Orphan.

That’s one recording we haven’t yet got on site here. Maybe you’d consider adding it and put the link in the comments for the recording. But, please don’t add it as an alternate title for this transcription. 😏

Already taken care of, "c". The tune titles on that particular series of CDs are notoriously inaccurate. I seem to remember "The Queen Of The Rushes" became "The Queen Of Russia". I hope you don’t object to this, "Ange", but that CD is probably the only one where the jig "The Blooming Meadows" - as posted by myself - is referred to as "The Flowing Tide". There are also a reel and a hornpipe by the same name. When you added "The Flowing Tide" as an alternative title, about a dozen "Recordings" were added to the list, although in all probability, none of those recordings include this jig, but either the reel or the hornpipe which shares the same name. As the person who posted the tune, I am permitted to edit the list of titles, and have therefore removed it. If you feel very strongly about it, you can put it back in, but it will only add to the inaccuracies which arise when tunes share the same title, so I would respectfully request that you don’t. All the best, kenny

That’s fine Kenny, and thanks for the interesting explanation. Actually I ended up finding the connection to this tune by using Tunepal in the end - the title may change but at least the notes don’t! With regard to adding the recording, I had noticed it didn’t appear to be on the site yet. I would be happy to add it except that I’m not too sure how to go about doing this! maybe there’s an existing thread with some ‘how to’ details in it?

It’s an easy thing to do Ange, but one of the problems you’d have, and responsibilities, would be to at least try to correct the wrong titles. It seems to have been a running problem with that "Champions of Ireland" series, and others from that particular recording company, as Kenny has mentioned above…

Yes it occured to me that I’d need to pin down all the incorrect the titles before attempting to add the recording - I don’t mind having a go, might be a fun bit of research! But will have to wait till the kids go back to school next week as my brain’s left home at the moment.

You can always add it now and make corrections later, speaking from experience, and with thanks to members who have helped…

This tune was taught by Jill Elliott at a fiddle workshop at Bristol’s Hibernia Centre on 4th May 2013, to universal approval. Great tune.

The title ‘The Blooming Meadows’ goes back (at least) to O’Neill. The tune appears, however, in Peter Kennedy’s "Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Jigs and Quicksteps, Trips and Humours" (Mallinson, 1997) as tune #32 under the title ‘Down the Hill’. It also shows up with the title ‘The Green Hills of Armagh’ on page 130 of Josephine Keegan’s 2004 tune collection "A Drop in the Ocean".

Piping version for this tune.

Piping version influenced by Harry Bradly

and by Ronan Browne & Peter O’Loughlin’s version on "Touch Me If You Dare"

A bit late for this comment, but ref Free Reed’s mention above, six years ago, of the book titled "Blooming Meadows" (no "The"), I hope he won’t mind my adding that the text of the book comprised interviews by Charlie Piggott as well as by Fintan, and also included photographs by Nutan.
Full list of the musicians interviewed and other info on Fintan’s site at
http://imusic.ie/blooming-meadows/
Published in 1999 and no longer in print, but both authors add very illuminating insights to the quotes provided by their subjects. Well worth looking out for second-hand copies (four on eBay today, not cheap though).

Concertina version as played by Tom Carey and Mairéad Considine on this live recording from 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJMOr6w5M6M&list=LLW94pAtZTV_zOXE38KykmPQ

play video