The Blackbird hornpipe

A beautiful tune from Angelina Carberry and Martin Quinn’s beautiful duet playing. I’ve been waiting for someone to post it, but ended up learning it by myself. There are several tunes known as “The Blackbird,” or “An Londubh,” but this is interestingly different from other settings. Bothy Band actually recorded three different settings of the tune in a set: this is the last one and played as a reel.

A slightly simpler version is on another beautiful album, Mick O‘Brien and Kevin O’Reilly’s “Kitty Lie Over.”

Why is it listed as a hornpipe if you say this is a reel version? I’m puzzled.

I think what slainte means is that the Bothy Band played this version of the Blackbird as a reel, but his source for the version is the Carberry/Quinn recording, on which it is played as a hornpipe.

If this is what Carberry and Quinn are playing, then I reckon that they, or whoever they learned it from, has mixed up the parts from 2 different tunes. “The Bothy Band” never played the first part of this tune as posted, but the 2nd part is correct. The first part is played as an un-named hornpipe by Mairtin O’Connor on his recording “The Connaughtman’s Rambles”, but with a different 2nd part.

Two tunes mixed up? We need to thank Angelina and Martin for their creative mistake! My transcription might not be perfect, but this is almost what they recorded on their duet album.

You can find the Bothey Band version of this tune in Norbeck’s tune collection. It’s listed as set dance #6. Don’t ask me why it’s not posted as a reel!

Quite different from the Blackbird I know! I’ll try and post it.

I might misremember, but Mick O‘Brien and Kevin O’Reilly recorded this setting of the hornpipe like this:

K: D
FG|~A3B A2Bc|d2AG F2D2|FGAF GBAG|F2D2 D2:|
FG|Addc d2eg|fdec dcAB|Addc dfag|f2d2 d2fe|
dcAF G2(3ABc|d2AG F2D2|FGAF GBAG|F2D2 D2:|

Here’s another hornpipe setting: https://thesession.org/tunes/4101

Kick and Kevin recorded this on “Kitty Lie Over” in Bb. Here’s my transposition into D. A little different from Slainte’s transcription.

X: 1
T: Londubh
T: Blackbird, The
S: Mick O’Brien and Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh, Kitty Lie Over
N: Recorded in Bb; transposed here to D “as played”
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K:D
B3d A2 A/B/c|d2 AG (3FGF D2|FGAF GBAG|(3FGF D2 DFGA|
~B3d A2 Bc|d2 AG (3FGF D2|FGAF GBAG|(3FGF D2 DEFG||
Addc dfeg|fded cAGB|Addc deag|(3fgf d2 d2 fe|
dcAF G2 A/B/c|d2 AG (3FGF D2|FGAF GBAG|1 (3FGF D2 DEFG :|2 (3FGF D2 DFGA||

“Kick?” Yikes. Stop me before I type again!

That’s Mick O’Brien.

I obviously misremembered their version. Thanks Will for correcting me. Now you can listen to them play this on their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/kittylieover The reel which follow this hornpipe is Johnny Henry’s Favourite, or the Irish version of Donal Blue: https://thesession.org/tunes/1175#comment138293

From the playing of Tommy Peoples:

X: 1
T: Blackbird, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: played as a reel
D: Tommy Peoples (Bothy Band OOTWITS)
K: Dmix
GA|B2cB A2Bc|d2AG F2DE|FGAF GcAG|F2D2 D2:|
|:(3EFG|Add^c d2eg|fded cAGc|Add^c dfag|f2d2 d2fe|
dcAF G2Ad|~d2AG F2DE|FGAF GcAG|F2D2 D2:|

Oops, I meant Kevin Burke.

This is the version I posted, without realising the tune was already here:

X: 1
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
B4 A2 (3ABc | dBAG FEDE | FGAF GBAG |1 F2 D2 D2 dc :||2 F2 D2 D2 dB || Addc d2 (3efg | fdec dcBc | Addc dfag | f2 d2 d2 fe | dBAF G2 (3ABc | dBAG FEDE | FGAF GBAG |1 F2 D2 D2 dB :||2 F2 D2 D2 dc ||

I picked it up in sessions in Manhattan, NY, in January ’09. Awesome sessions, awesome tunes!

I agree with Kenny about the Carberry/Quinn tune as posted being mixed with the A-part of another tune. I found it here in the database as The Stranger https://thesession.org/tunes/4578, as played by Martin O’Connor on the album Kenny mentioned, Elizabeth Crotty on Concertina Music from West Clare, and Tim Britton on Traditional Irish Music in America: The East Coast.

Sorry for having posted a weird version first. I edited the version #2 as I play the tune now.

This is the setting Laura Fedderson plays with Nathan Gourley, as heard here {https://soundcloud.com/www-tradconnect-com/nathan-gourley-and-laura}.

Mick O‘Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh play this hornpipe on Kitty Lie Over but they also play the Holy Land reel on Deadly Buzz (as did the Bothy Band), the one is probably derivative of the other. Patsy Touhy’s version of the Blackbird set dance also starts with that combination of notes (in the Francis O’Neill wax cylinder collection). John Kelly played this hornpipe version on fiddle and Kevin Burke’s version sounds very similar to his.

Laura Fedderson & Nathan Gourley version from “Life Is All Checkered” :-
https://thesession.org/recordings/4838
Transcribed by liltmuse in setting X5 above :-
https://thesession.org/tunes/4508#setting28174

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCJeWUIqRh8

play video