The Road To Errogie reel

This is a great tune. Simple and powerfull. It’s on Flooks "haven" and Shannons an McGoldricks "tunes". Sounds to be a new one, but I have no infos about the composer. The "tunes" version is slightly different:

X: 1
T: The Road to Errogie
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
DGG2 AGAB|dGG2 ABdB|e3d BAGB|A3B AGEG|
DGG2 AGAB|dGG2 ABdB|e3d BAGB|AGAB G3E:|
g2g2 g2ag|ab2a g3d|e2dg2de2-|edgd edBc|
g2g2 g2ag|ab2a g3d|e3d BAGB|AGBA G4|
g2g2 g2ag|ab2a g3d|e2dg2de2-|edgd edBG|
DGG2 AGAB|dGG2 ABdB|e3d BAGB|AGBA G3E||

The Road to Errogie was composed by Scottish Fiddler Adam Sutherland. It was actually written in the the key of B major…yes…B major.
Some other recordings this tune appears on is the "Scottish Stepdance Company - Sole Music" and Adam’s own band "Croft No. 5 - Attention All Personnel"

Aye it was written in ‘B’ first but each to their own like.

I was just learning this tune tonight, I got annoed because Tunes has it in Ab and Haven’s got it in Bb. The Flook version is most like the one on Tunes.

Hi my name is Adam and I wrote this tune in 1999 in the key of ‘B’, just because I couldn’t think of any other tunes that I had ever heard in that key and also because ‘B’ is unbelievably happy! It came after about 20 minutes of free jamming with my guitar playing mate Dave Sutherland of Lochaber (no relation) and took as long to write as it does to play. Essentially it is an improvisation. Look out for it on an up-coming album by ‘Session A9’ and also another up-coming album by ‘The Peatbog Faeries’. cheeeeers

It’s quite an easy tune to pick up but a bugger to play in Bmajor!! One of my friends from Shetland plays it in B and then the last time through the last part she modulates into C#major… a bugger to get in tune on the fiddle!!! Typical Shetlanders for you! hehe!!:P

I learnt it in A, is that ok Ad?

Shoz said; ‘I learnt it in A, is that ok?’
Shoz, I’m just delighted that ye like playing it in the first place. Anyway, different is good. Cheers

Brian Finnegan said you composed it after a bat flew into your head while you were cycling back from the pub along the road to Errogie - myth?

I about to learn Road to Errogie by Adam Sutherland - I love the tune. Now I know its written in B but that may be an effort for me to play on the fiddle. So a quick question to find out what is the most popular session key for it - G or A? Or do people just go for it and learn it in B ;)

thanks

Toby

Adam plays it in A himself. In Scotland that’s the key it’s normally played in sessions.

I have heard two versions one is Flook they do it in Bb which is G on the F whistle they play it on and there is also the version on "Tunes" where they play it in Ab which is really G on Eb instruments. I think if you played it in a session no one would even know the tune so it really doesn’t matter what key you play it in. I play it in G myself.

I know several people that play it in E, just because it’s a happy key, but one night there were just a few of us at a session, and we played it in nearly every key we could think of. its a great tune! way to go adam for writing it!!

So Ad do you get payed royalties now it’s on Comhaltas’s website?

Glad to hear that it’s played more in A in Scotland, it’s a great flute key.. I should come over there for a session :) I find that although people know it here (Limerick, Eire), a lot of them seem to like to play it in G… it’s just not as uplifting, somehow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj-2pqF62wE

play video

I believe the second tune in this set is the one posted here.

Wonderful tune Adam! I wonder if you have recorded your official version of the tune. I also have learned it in A simply because I am musically challenged in the first place so I take all the easy paths I can find. What is special about the road (actual highway) to Errogie? Anyway it is a favorite of mine for sure!

Here is a version of the tune in B:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_TdZEVtlYM

play video

Adam recorded the tune on Session A9s latest album, Bottlenecks & Arm-breakers:

https://thesession.org/recordings/display/2868

A great album - well worth the purchase!

And Troy McGillivray’s version (also in B):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGTWt5362DQ&NR=1

play video

Starts at 4:07

Was used in the Doherty School of Irish Dancing winning senior mixed figure……great tune for Dancing

Playing it like a boss!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYmRE-PX-LE

play video

This one’s by the man himself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kySYfeKAnHs&feature=relmfu

play video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2otyyk6KXww

play video

Dear Adam,
thank you SO much for this tune, is one of my favourites.
Having said that, B ! really ? LOL
For mando players out there, I highly highly recommend A, it dam flies.

Setting #3 is an approximate transcription of Adam Sutherland’s own rendition in his solo clip, posted above - which is in B. (The tune submission facility only allows B mixolydian, but there are no A#s in the tune, anyway. Also, the 1st & 2nd time bars are not displayed properly in the sheet music.).

Note that the rhythm in bb. 3-4 of the B-part is different from that in the other settings (which are more like the way I have heard it played in sessions):

Adam Sutherland: | g2gf b2fg-| gfbf gfdf |
Other settings: | g2fb- bfg2-| gfbf gfdf |
I have also heard some young upstarts playing it thus: | g2fb- bfg2 | fb2f gfdf |
(I have written all of these examples in the same key for ease of comparison. I have never actually heard it played in B in a session).

The original has the least syncopation in that phrase, so I prefer it to the standard session version which makes my skin crawl. I would be inclined to just chuck out the syncopation altogether because I’m a grumpy barstard and go | g2gf bf~f2| gfbf gfdf | :-)

In Canada, this tune is played in the key of A in started situations, although at Leahy Camp during both the pub session and the Grand Jam, it was played in A, then Bb, then finishing in B.

Here is a cross between the version they play at Leahy Camp and what Andrea Beaton taught me. Andrea and I primarily play it in B major, but at Leahy, they play it in A, Bb, and B, one right after another.

Dear Adam,
You played this for us at the fiddle school in Robert’s Creek this year (2015) and it’s a brilliant, happy piece. Thank you so much for sharing your tune in the key of B. I’m going to learn it in this key ;)
Thanks for posting your video. That speaks loud and clear !!
Cheers from Vancouver, BC CANADA

Does anyone have a version of this in B major?

This site transposes: http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php

abc transposer
http://www.slainte.ch/abc.asp

The Road to Errogie in B major. I know it says B mix but that’s because B major is not an option.
A rough transcription from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kySYfeKAnHs.

play video

On the fiddle each line in the B part starts with a first finger slide from the F# to the B note. To get back down the crotchet/quarter note B with first finger is followed by a quaver/eighth note B with the pinky and first finger F#.
Hope this fits the bill, Michael.

In retrospect, nearly identical to version posted by CreadurMawnOrganig in April 2013.

Thanks very much DonaldK

There’s a score in B major (yes, 5 sharps) over on Ian Lowthian’s (piano accordion) website: see http://www.ianlowthianaccordionweekends.com/tunes
It’s in the Advanced Guide Tunes section, (bottom right of the tunes section), no 7 of 29

Must try it on my box: you don’t often get a chance to put the B row of a B/C to full use! (Usually only when a singer lands on that key.)