Seventeen comments
Across the Black River
This jig in Bmin, written by Kevin Burke as played with Ged Foley on their recent "In Tandum" recording.
It was also recorded on The Celtic Fiddle Festival CD "Encore" in Dmin.
Great tune, thanks for posting it. It faintly reminds me of another fine b-minor jig Kevin Burke wrote, "Up in the Air," which he recorded on "Portland."
Thanks, smw. Good ear, Up In the Air is played with this tune in the Celtic Fiddle Festival set.
More a slide than a jig I feel.
Slide or jig?
Interesting hetty - I don’t get that feel from the phrasing. I know Kevin called it a jig at the Cincinnati fest in Ohio this past summer. Can you eleborate a bit on why feel it’s a slide?
Slight tweak
minor modifications to the last line (last 2 1/2 bars and adding 1st and 2nd endings)
Per request, here is the tune as Kevin and company played it on the Celtic Fiddle Festival recording “Encore”
K:Dmin
R:Jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
C:Kevin Burke
d3 dcd|Acd c2a|gec cde|d2c A2G|
d3 dcd|cAG ceg|a3 age|1 d3 dcA:|2 d3 def||
gag g2e|d2c A2G|GAc dcd|e2g def|
gag g2e|d2c A2G|ded c2G|1 A3 Aef:|2 A3 A2c||
my initial reaction from looking at it (especially the ‘B’ music) and singing it in my head was to link each pair of bars 1+2, 3+4, etc to form a phrase. 4 pairs of triplets giving 4 beats such as I recognise in slides. 12/8 with two 6/8 bars linked together. Hope that all makes sense.
Fair enough…
I can see how you could read the phrases that way. I guess several jigs have phrases that stretch over 2 bars giving them a slide quality and visa versa
Listen to Kevin Burke & Cal Scott
http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=muS2GEeJ3x4
The othetr tune is The last train from Loughrea
https://thesession.org/tunes/7993
B dorian?
This tune is in B dorian, not B minor. The key signature should be A.
B dorian or B minor doesn’t matter ….
T - you’re splitting hairs .. the G# in the B dorian scale or the G nat in the B minor scale doesn’t matter since there are no G’s in this tune. Irish tunes are about the melody line not the chordal structure anyway.
Second half ironed out
The second half sounds much better played like this:
efe e2c|B2A F2E|EFA CBA|c2e Bcd|
efe e2c|B2A F2E|BcB AFE|1 F3 Fcd:|2 F3 F2A||
With CBA instead of BAB.
Its how Lúnasa play it…
Chords - help!
I’ve had a go at working out some chords for this (added to my slight variation on the transcription below) but it usn’t quite right yet - please can anybody help?
X:1
T:Across the Black River
C:Kevin Burke
S:In Tandem
Z:Edgar Bolton
M:6/8
R:Jig
K:Bm
|:"Bm" ~B3 BAB | FAB A2 f | "A" ecA ABc | ~B2 A +slide+F2 E |
"Bm" ~B3 BAB |AFE Ace |"D" ~f3 fec |1 "Bm" ~B3-B2 A :|2 "Bm" ~B3-Bcd ||
|: "A" efe e2 c | "Bn" ~B A ~F3 | "F#m7" EFA cBA | "A" c2 e "Bm" Bcd |
"A" efe e2 c | "Bn" ~B A ~F3 | BcB A2 E | "F#m" F3 F3 :|
Whoops!
Yes, those Bn chords should be Bm - you’ll have to excuse me as I type mainly by ear 🙂
Great version played by Kevin Burke (fiddle) and Michael McGoldrick (flute)
This is my favorite video of it; great for playing along while learning (it’s the second tune, but the first one —"The Last Train from Loughrea"—has become a favorite of mine as well):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZlFBBFCtx4
Across The Black River, X:5
Transcribed from Lunasa’s 2006 album - Se. Lovely tune. Played on Low F whistle