Niamh’s Capers reel

Composed by Gerry (Banjo) O’Connor, named for one of his daughters, I think.
I actually learned this from Seamus (The Famous) Egan’s playing on Theo Paige’s album (it’s the very last cut listed as Cunningham’s Favorite) before I ever heard Gerry’s own version. They played it in A which is how I’ve written it here.On Time To Time Gerry is playing it in the key of Eb which, even transposed to D, would be way too high up the neck for most humans. Also, Theo and Seamus play the B part as: eA(3AAA fAaf|eAaf eAaf|eA(3AAA fA(3aaa|aggg gffg|e…etc.(or something like that) which is way more catchy (or gimmicky if you prefer) than the original. However, aside from the key change I tried to be as faithful as possible to Gerry’s playing of his own tune.

http://youtu.be/F2tJd3Uay_I

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From the playing of the duo “Tabache”
from a set of reels called “Cregg’s Pipes”

The Gneevguillia \ Are You Willing? \ Hanly’s Tweed \ Niamh’s Capers \ Cregg’s Pipes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umFKpytYPjE

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On the above named album “In Full Flight” by “The Wild Geese” Gerry also plays his tune. He had joined the band together with Manus Lunny when they were young.
It is named after his youngest daughter.

I always find it strange to mention other names for tunes that actually have been recently composed by people that are known. Why should somebody change the name of a composer’s tune? He can only be not well informed or he is an ignorant. That may be different, if nobody knows for sure, how an old tune was originally named.

When Gerry started his banjo-career (very young), he played his tenor banjo in the original C-G-D-A tuning. That is the reason why it is difficult to play the original key in common tuning.
Other players preferred the lower G-D-A-E tuning, because it is parallel to fiddle- and mandolin-tuning so one can apply the fingering of those instruments.

Besides Gerry is an excellent fiddler and guitarist.

Opening track : https://youtu.be/HCOuuvXIZw8

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