The Kesh jig

This tune one of the more popular jigs at sessions just about everywhere. However, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily easy to play.

The very last phrase of the second part can be a bit tricky because it goes up to that high B note. Try playing this phrase by itself over and over ’till your fingers have it memorised.

This is the tune that opens the first Bothy Band album, and it sounds incredible there.

I’m really getting tired of that trendy despise showed towards old standards. Particularly towards that poor old Kesh! I’ve learned it while listening to the first Bothy Band record in 1975 and I’ve been playing it since. And even if I’m the last one, I will keep on play it . Even if it’s not fashionable, and if the world of sessioneers is laughing at me! I’ll be the last of the Kesh players. As in other fields I don’t care about fashion in music, Long life to the Kesh!! Join the Save the Kesh World Wide Committee!

Paul …

Count me in!

And while we’re at it, let’s save “The Maid Behind The Bar” and “Harvest Home”!

Aidan

(Does this make me Deputy President of The Save The Kesh World Wide Committee?)

Paul, I guess I’m not in trendy surroundings ……; no despise towards the Kesh to be heard at all…; even The Irish Washerwoman is played some times 🙂

https://thesession.org/tunes/39

Maybe it’s time it came back into session fashion again, after being cast out in the wilderness for the best part of a decade.
Personally, I’ve heard it enough in the past for it to stay in the wilderness for another decade, similarly the harvest home. I don’t have quite the same contempt for the Maid or the Washerwoman though.
I have been guilty of reintroducing the hackneyed Bluebell polka, so have nothing against reinstatement initiatives in principle, but am not ready yet for the Kesh!

Danny.

absolutely!!! …. and I think I

Have a look at this thread: https://thesession.org/discussions/1577

I didn’t like the tune at first, but I discovered its greatness as my playing improved. It just shouldn’t be taught as a piece for beginners.

I’m personally an admirer of Trippin’ Upstairs. I didn’t know anything about ITM when it was popular. I’m fed up with Jackie Coleman’s and Mt Road, but, in my opinion, TU is eternally great tune like Connaughtman’s Rambles.

i can quite understand that after having over played a tune one gets bored. For myself, back in my guitar finger picking years, i played Anji at nauseum, and i’m not ready to play it again . But what i can’t accept is the trendy side of thing!. Why should we let a bunch of pretentious truth holders tell us what we should play or not?

Some tunes push some people’s buttons … others don’t. That’s the way it goes. If a tune grabs me, but doesn’t grab others, I’ll put it out and I’m ogten surprised at the reaction.

An example is “Bill Hart’s Favourite” which, I’ve been told was one of those done-to-death tunes which lapsed out of fashion. I freally like its drive and bounce and the fact it can slot into just about any jig set regardless of the key of the preceding tune and give new energy. However a lot of recent players have never heard of the tune and find it infectious!

Anyway … fashion, snobbishness, whatever, be damned! If it feels good, do it and never mind the begrudgers.

Each of the tunes mentioned so far in this thread is an example of an ABA.
Trevor

What have ABA got to do with The Music?

Paul -“Trendy” is just a word. Also I don’t know any players who’d set themselves up as “pretentious truth holders” - yet you said it yourself once you’ve played a tune ten jillion times it does get subjectively jaded…if this is an experience shared with a group of players in a session, or even a group of sessions within the same city or region, where there is cross-fertilisation occurring as players go from one session to another, then maybe the Kesh etc., does get a bit over done. But I don’t care if people want to continue to do it, or similar tunes, now and again… as long as there’s plenty scope for fresher tunes to get an airing.

Danny

i think the problem begins when contempt for a tune turn into contempt for the one who plays it: “ look at him the poor guy doesn’t know that this tune is not played any longer nowadays!”
Danny, the Kesh can be played on the G/D box.
By the way what is an ABA?

This process is not really about the tunes, but the players defining an “in crowd”, so that when you go to one of “their” sessions and play one of last years tunes they can smile smugly at each other and feel safe.

Long live the Kesh.

All the best PP

An ABA is Another Bl---y Acronym 🙂
Trevor

From my observations I think that the only thing wrong with The Kesh is that it’s too frequently pushed at beginners (or early improvers) on the fiddle before they’re technically ready for it. There are some aspects of the bowing that aren’t particularly easy until the player has acquired some fluency in technique.
Trevor

Many Irish tunes are quite simple, which is very different from easy. You can play almost any tune in a wide range of levels. I could happily listen to Kevin Burke, James Kelly, Liz Carroll, Paddy Keenan, any of the greats, play the Kesh.

The Kesh is a good tune to give to beginners because it is catchy (and so they can learn it fairly easily by ear), it swings easily (so they can start learning feel), and, if you have learned well and know what you’re about, you can make it a less simple tune as your skill level rises.

Zina

Zina don’t tell that to bb - she hates it!

LOL -- well, it’s her own fault then! *grin* And you can tell her I said so. That said, I don’t play it very often myself. 🙂

Actually, there’s a few tunes I know she hates with a passion. We could do her head in by playing them all as one big set in Helena. I should work up a daggy set and e-mail it to you 😉

What a good idea! *grin*

Having just played it for the first time not but thirty seconds ago (kid you, I’m not)… i like it.

_after 25 odd years i’ve come back to it _along with The
Banshee and Miss McClouds . . . give these things time . . .

One of my favourite places in Ireland is Co. Fermanagh: I stayed in Enniskillen several times and enjoyed exploring around Louch Erne. The only thing I’ve always failed to do is visit a village called Kesh, which seems so trivial that Lonely Planet doesn’t mention it at all, and play the tune of the same name there. I know there’re a couple of places called Corofin, but believe there isn’t any other place called Kesh in Ireland. Have any of you ever visisted there?

http://www.britinfo.net/index_Kesh.htm

I love the Kesh and I’ve played in since I first started learning fiddle, and it’s just gotten more interesting. We don’t play the Kesh jig that much in sessions anymoreas it used to be over-played, but I’ve been trying. My dad and I play this in a set starting with Morrison’s, Road to Lisdoonvarna, and then the Kesh. The first two also are classed as overplayed old tunes, but it’s fun to bring them out again all in a set and remind people what good tunes they really are.

well actually, i love this tune and i play it a lot.
My teacher also just taught me the Harvest Home, which i hear a lot on
NPR, being played by a great band!
just wanted to let you know

X:1
T:The Kesh Jig
C:Traditional
M:6/6
K:D
|: {g}A{d}A{e}A {g}ABc | {g}B{d}B{e}B {g}Bce | {g}fe{A}e ae{A}e | {g}fec {g}ec{d}B |
%
| {g}A{d}A{e}A {g}ABc | {g}B{d}B{e}B {g}Bce | {g}fe{A}e aec | {g}B{d}A{e}A [1 {GAG}A3 :| [2 {GAG}A2 B|
%
|: {g}c{d}c{e}c {g}ece | {g}faf {g}ec{d}A | {g}c{d}c{e}c {g}ec{d}A | {g}B{d}B{e}B {g}B{d}A{e}B |
%
| {g}c{d}c{e}c {g}ece | {g}faf {g}ec{d}A | {g}ce{A}e {g}ece | {g}fa{g}a [1 A2 B :| [2 A3 |

I’ve always loved this jig, but didn’t know the name (or couldn’t remember the name) until I found it here…it’s great in sessions, but also everywhere else, it really always makes me feel like dancing.

I love this tune, i can never play it enough! I also like going into this song from Blarney Pilgrim. Just my opinion, but i think they sound great together. Also, i think the best way to play The Kesh is at lightning speed, or faster! LOL

Who, if anyone, played /recorded this tune before the Bothies made it a hit round 1975? Its earlier history remains unknown to me.

“…but believe there isn’t any other place called Kesh in Ireland. Have any of you ever visisted there?”

Yes, it’s just outside Ballymote, in Sligo Co. Sometimes spelled Keash it seems.

Yep… it’s a townland. Basically a few houses and a barn maybe as I recall it having stumbled upon it when I was lost on the roads in that part of Sligo once. I asked an older flute player at a session in Gurteen where the Shaskeen got it’s name. He told me a piper who lived there used to play it. I suspect that’s how a lot of these tunes got their names.

X: 1134
T: The Kesh Jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: G Major
|: D |
G2 G GAB | A2 A AB/c/d | edd gdd | edB dBA |
GAG G2 B | AA/A/A ABd |edd gdB | AGF G2 :|
|: d |
B2 B dB/c/d | e/f/ge dBA | ~B3 BA^G | ~A3 FGA |
B^AB d^cd | ege dBd | g2 g a^ga | bgf g2 :|

This is not “The Castle” in Music at Matt Molloy’s.

Hey, My Irish band, The Langer’s Ball, was just learing Luka Blooms “You Couldn’t have come at a better time” form his Riverside album, and the Kesh Jig is in there as well. Just thought I’d mention it.

THE KESH PLAYED BY THE BOTHY BAND SOUNDS INCREDIBLE…!!!!

Any suggestions for a tune to go after the kesh ?

tee he

anyone got any suggestions for a nice tune to go after the Kesh ?

The Kincora Jig

Isn`t that the same tune ?

It would be a lot harder to find a nasty tune to go after the Kesh, so many nice ones fit the bill. You could try Morrison’s Jig in E dorian and come back to G major with Out On The Ocean, for example.

Ok, tony, sorry for being silly. Try something more colourful like the Swan Among the Rushes, or the Cat’s Miaow. It’s just that I hate the kesh/kincora after playing it nearly every week for twenty odd years.

Ha ha, maybe I will feel the same after twenty years, if I last that long !

I think it goes well into “the cliffs of Moher” in Am.

I know of at least three places called kesh but always thought it was associated with keash in sligo which has a fascinating history. Every garland sunday (last one in July) there is a great gathering for sports and games that has been going on for hundreds of years maybe longer.

By the way I like this tune………

It seems to me, that the Kesh Jig and Cooleys reel are some of the most well known tunes in irish traditional music.

could someone please post the abc for the 3 section?

As far as I know - and I’ve been hearing and playing the tune since the “Boys Of The Lough” recorded it as the “Kincora” jig in 1975 [ probably only a few months before the “Bothy Band” ] - it’s never had a third “section”?

Looking for a great jig to follow the Kesh jig ….any ideas?

On the pipes I might add.

https://thesession.org/tunes/5

Morrison’s might do the trick.

Play it again in A

I often play it after Morrison’s

Didn’t Bothy Band used to play the slip jig Give Us A Drink of Water after the Kesh?
Usually, we use it to end sets, not begin sets.

Should have checked the tune database first. On this site, what the Bothy Band called Give Us a Drink of Water is called The Swaggering Jig.
And the Prof’s suggestion is a good one, although when we play it with the Kesh, Blarney Pilgrim comes first.

Yep, Al, followed by ‘The Flower of the Flock’ and ‘The Famous Ballymote’ (though ‘TFotF’ doesn’t appear on ‘Afterhours’).


https://thesession.org/recordings/293, https://thesession.org/recordings/5 and https://thesession.org/recordings/11

Cherish the Ladies would be a nice one to follow The Kesh. Never tried it, but it just popped into my head.

https://thesession.org/tunes/590

Or even better, play it in Gmin…

I usually play the Blarney Pilgrim first, but it works either way 🙂

I play The Kesh, Jim Wards‘, and Lost and Found in a set, and The Kesh sounds pretty cool(to me) after Jim Wards’. They both start with the same first bar but Jim Wards’ goes lower.

Our chaps do Shandon Bells/Rakes of Kildare/Kesh Jig, though one of ’em prefers to drop Kesh and do Irish Washerwoman instead. No comment from me!

And I’ve just realised that I haven’t answered your question. 😉

Dia dhuit a Kess! Hi Kess!

In Liverpool, one of your great sister cities, we alawys played “The lark in the morning” after “The Kesh”.

I note from your profile you like paced music. Believe me when you get a group of musicians all in the groove so to speak, “The Lark” is still one of the great jigs.

Interestingly MacC when Paddy K was out here last year he invited me up to play so I did a few sets with him, no rehearsal, just get up and play.

And what did we do? Well “The Kesh Set” it was and it was all on automatic. I hadn’t played “The Swaggering” or “Flower of the Flock” in maybe twenty odd years and it just rolled out!

All the best

Brian x

I know of a session that plays Smash the Windows/Kesh/Swallowtail

I don’t like it, but they do it….

Lately I’ve been following it with Banish Misfortune.

We play Patsy Geary, Hare in the Corn, the Kesh. I know you asked for a tune to follow, but the Kesh is one of those tunes that is great to end with.

a usual set of our session is Kesh Jig, Connaughtman’s Rambles, Dusty Windowsill

We follow it with “Yes We Have No Bananas” and then “The Ride of the Valkyries”.

Come back Mr Gill, all is forgiven.

Surely you don’t need advice on compiling sets.

As a fiddler, I play The Kesh in G, so I’d go for a rhythm change and play a cracking reel in the same key - e.g. Sheehan’s Reel.

“Come back Mr Gill, all is forgiven.”

yeah, where did he go?

Kess
You’ve been playing trad flute for 12 years - what would YOU put after the Kesh?

Ha ha Domhnall, I know.

But I think the Kesh is the perfect jig in G and Im looking for the perfect follow up (yes I could play 20 others which sound good) but ‘good’ isnt good enough!!!

… yes I need to get out more 🙂

So a bunch of random people on the internet can put together a “perfect” set?

I recommend “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

I’d second (or third) the proposal to put it at the end. It is one of this tunes that are so common that when listeners (who know tunes) hear it at the beginning of a set, they think “oh, not the Kesh again?” - on the other hand it goes well enough as a “dessert”. Also, in a session, the less experienced players who might not know so many tunes will be happy when the Kesh comes up.

The Kesh is one of those bare-bones jobbies that you can really go to work on and do a bit of variation. Tunes that get played a bit too much get played a bit too much because they’re good tunes. Buy me a pint and I’ll even do Danny Boy. Buy me two and I might even enjoy it. 😀

Commonly known tunes do well at the end of the set because the volume goes from low to higher. Sometimes it does sound nice when everybody but a couple players drop out in the middle of a set but the last tune should be one lots of people play or the set loses it’s energy.

i found the perfect set ……. drum roll…

The Kesh…… Cliffs of Moher…..Pay the Reckoning!


Thanks guys

now on to the reels

k

Jimmy wards then Blarney Pilgrim

Here is my guitar adaptation for this tune :
http://youtu.be/qJYcT-KvSoI

play video

Hope you like it 🙂

Love the way Colm Gannon and Jessie Smith adopted, adapted and recorded the tune.

https://soundcloud.com/colm-gannon/the-kesh-the-ewe-with-the

For anyone interested in the origins of names, the name Kesh is found here & there in Ireland. It refers to a passageway across wet ground, bog etc. A sort of bridge of wicker matting used in older times to facilitate crossing without getting your feet too wet.

X:7 from a 1919 recording of piper Patrick Fitzpatrick: https://archive.org/details/PatrickFitzpatrickComedyMaid I once saw Fitz’s set of Taylor pipes - “One of Taylor’s masterpieces” as Chief O’Neill described it. The bass and double bass regulators were made entirely from sheet metal, and the toneholes could be slid up and down to perfect tuning/tone. Just amazing work. On the label of the 78 this title here was “Comedy Maid” - in all likelihood some record company flunky couldn’t decipher Patrick’s brogue pronunciation of “Comely.”

Kevin-that reminds me of Boehm, in his book on flute playing, describing how in order to determine the best placement for the toneholes, he built a flute with moveable holes. Sounds just like the Taylor pipes you describe.

The Kesh Jig /
slip jig: Give Us a Drink of Water /
reels: Sean Reid’s / The Famous Ballymote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6YJAFbJPrA

play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwr9TgFyJbo

play video

Would anyone sharing a bowing pattern for this jig?

I’m not looking for the “right” way to bow it, I’m just looking for one way to bow it, that you think works.
I recently studied a video online on slurring - using the musical priest, it really helped me to just follow her way of bowing and learn it, and I was surprised how quickly I learned to do what at first seemed really unnatural.

I’m too much of a beginner to work out a good way to bow the Kesh especially bar 3, and in general i struggle with some sequence of notes in every jig. I figure learning somebodies way of doing it would help me as much as the video did with that reel.

I’m not sure if there’s a standard way of writing down bowing, but I can probably work with anything, but please also include any details of grace notes and rolls that are important to keep the rhythm. They may not be obvious to me.

Many thanks in advance.

A Version I play

From Michael Coleman and Paddy Finlay: https://archive.org/details/MichaelColemanandPaddyFinlayOldManDillonKerrigansFancy Kerrigan was a Longford piper who emigrated to America, and requisitioned the first loud set of pipes in concert pitch; before him, pipes were quiet and generally pitched below concert D. He had a pub, Kerrigan’s Happy Hour, where he would play his pipes to piano accompaniment while the waiters danced and sang.

Setting as played at the Golden Guinea pub session, Bristol UK.

About people not playing “overplayed” tunes: please just remember that what is “overplayed” to one person (or group of experienced players) is a great newly discovered tune and a joy to play to those of us who are just discovering them.

This is one of those tunes that you will eventually get bored with on one instrument, because it’s super easy. However, it sounds amazing, and this tune should always be encouragement to keep learning new instruments.
So, to those people who keep saying that this tune is overplayed, get over it. Learn a new instrument. Play it on that.

A few runs, and an alternative ending.

A slight variation. Taken from ‘A Fine Selection of Over 200 Irish Traditional Tunes for Sessions’, compiled by David Speers with a Forward by Matt Cranitch.

As a beginner I’m learning a simplified version of this jig off the record of Filidhean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ERB8P2PCm8

play video

After studying the Irish jig structure with Mary Bergin, I applied my interpretation to The Kesh. I dont use the header info that is on thesession.org template, rather:
T:Kesh
C: interpr. chris novack
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D
Q:1/4=176

This provides a more accurate interpretation, imo. I dont believe Q: translates in MuseScore. I dont use that app.

Header info should read L:1/16. I set it to thesessions.org default (and it sounds like a dirge) and didnt correct it when I posted.

T:Kesh
C: interpr. chris novack
L:1/16
M:6/8
K:D
Q:1/4=176

To what extent do the tied 16th notes make it a more accurate interpretation?

Doesn’t this give the same result?

L: 1/8 and then G>FG G>AB etc.

(By the way, the tune is in G.)

Thank you, Jeff, for your feedback. This is my first attempt to capture a rhythm via ABC which I posted for “peer review” and your comments are genuinely appreciated. I do not read music, nor will I ever and certainly not with gusto, but some of the (beginner) people I play with are literal sheet readers and it is difficult to convey the “weight” of each beat as I heard and had demonstrated via a simple triplet, commonly found in Irish collections.
The note length and subsequent example you provided was precisely what I was looking for as my knowledge is primitive in this regard. My version 0.000001 was literally strings of 16th notes. To be clear, my comment regarding “ more accurate interpretation” was with regard to tempo (lively as opposed to in the dirt). NFW was I pronouncing my code as more accurate than anything else printed.

Thanks again
Chris

What if, to spice up corny old favourite, it was orchestrated in 7/8 and in whole tone scale?https://soundcloud.com/yhaal-house/the-kesh-jig-trad-arr-dudley-1

Bass and Chords For B/C Box
Upper case - Bass button / Lower case - Chord button

Transposed to be playable on a tiny 8 bass accordion.