Seamus Cooley’s jig

This is another tune that could just be an alternative setting of something else, but I couldn’t find anything too similar to it in my searches… so apologies if it’s already here, I did try! It’s the last tune of track 18 on ‘Dear Old Erin’s Isle’.

Not what anyone else calls “Cooley’s” though. Does anyone know more about it’s background?

coming back to the discussion, this has become a staple of my playing: with its separation of voices and angular melody, it is an absolute gem.

A version I learned from Jimmy Keane, who knew Seamus.

It just struck me that the B section of this tune is exactly the same as the B section of “Down The Back Lane”: https://thesession.org/tunes/1496

As played by Con Ó Drisceoil on It’s a Secret, where they call it Jimmy Doyle’s Favourite (not to be confused with Jimmy Doyle’s Polka, where the link from the recording page takes you). As Ian says, the turn/B music is closer to one of the settings of Down the Back Lane than anything else. Key is definitely D major on this recording, with just a couple of C nats in bars 2 and 6 of the B music.

Here’s Con Ó Drisceoil’s playing of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MhvdefsTrQ

play video

Is this really called “Seamus Cooley’s Jog” (with an O) or is that a typo? I just leaned it as Seamus Cooley’s Jig.

It looks like the “Seamus Cooley’s Jog” typo came from the digital edition of Martin Hayes’s album “Under the Moon.” (https://store.compassrecords.com/products/under-the-moon) They also misspelled Kilfenora Jig as “Kilfenora Jog”

This tune is closely related to the Humours of Ayle House, https://thesession.org/tunes/2295 , especially X:3 with the C#s. There it will be pleased to find it has another load of cousins waiting for it in O’Neill’s!