Paddy Fahey’s reel

This is a transcription of the first tune on track 4 of ‘Bridging the Gap’ by Kevin and Sean Moloney.

According to the liner notes (lest you think that I know this kind of thing off the top of my head), this is a lesser known Fahy composition that Sean learned from the great Ballinikill fiddler Lucy Farr.

Paddy Fahy is the legendary fillder from near Ballinisloe, Co Galway and the compeoser of numerous tuns, including Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s, Paddy Fahy’s and, most notably, Paddy Fahy’s.

This Pady Fahy reel is also on other Ballinakill musicians Mike & Mary Rafferty’s “The Road from Ballinakill” CD: https://thesession.org/recordings/160 (the first one of the very last track)

There aren’t many Fahy tunes I can play on the keyless flute, so I appreciate this post. Cheers, Tim.

Here’s the link to the recording where this Fahy tune originally comes from: https://thesession.org/recordings/2081

I haven’t played this tune before, but I liked it with an F natural in the measure before the endings of the second part. Or is this just too crass? 🙂

Well, it’d hardly BE a Paddy Fahy tune unless it had at least one F natural (or a sudden octave jump, or awkward cross fingering . . .).

This Fahy reel is also on “An Tris is a Rian” by Claire Keville, John Weir and Eithne Ni Dhonaile. I believe Claire Keville collected it from the fellow East Galway musician.

Here’s a nice bouncy swung version of this Paddy Fahy tune played by Seamus Creagh. Don’t know where the recording comes from, but it sounds great:

http://youtu.be/VlC0LYSqLjY

play video

Which he follows with Johnny Cronin’s:
https://thesession.org/tunes/2298

Got a cool version of this tune from Eileen O’Brien (see transcription above)

Probably taken from track 1 of Creagh’s album “Come the Dawn”.

A lovely Paddy Fahy tune, thank for sharing.

That’s a really cool set Jamie. thanks for the share!