Scattery Island slide

When this tune came up on a recent discussion thread, I waited, hoping someone else would post it. But it’s been a week now, so….

I learned this setting from a bouzouki player in Morgantown, West Virginia, about 25 years ago. At the time I thought it was a straight jig and assumed the “Slide” part referred to some landslide. The zouk player was kind enough to point out how the phrasing fit into the 12/8 structure (linking 4 beats per phrase instead of the jig’s 2 beats) and explain that’s what made it a slide.

I like this one at a lively pace. It goes well into Mice in the Cupboard (Willie Coleman’s). There’s nothing particularly tricky about it--you can skip all the rolls for a simpler version and it still sounds good.

So does anyone know where Scattery Island is? I found a Scatari Island off the east coast of Cape Breton in Canada, and that seems plausible enough, but I’m guessing there’s a Scattery Island closer to Ireland?

Scattery Island lies in the Shannon estuary, between the counties of Clare and Kerry.

Thanks David (this isn’t the first time you’ve taught me Irish geography). I figured it would be near Kerry, the tune being a slide and all. My map of Ireland names most of the coastal islands, but not ones in rivers, even though it shows them. Thanks for clearing this one up for me.

In a set it follows on well from the Brosna Slide.

Hmmmm, that leaves it wide open as to which of the several Brosna slides you mean? 😏

On the LP The Rushy Mountain: Classic Music From Sliabh Luachra 1952-77 *, John & Julia Clifford and Maurice O’Keeffe play this tune after “Behind the Bush i the Garden” and call it “Going for Water”.

* = https://thesession.org/recordings/1274/comments

The tune came from John Kelly, fiddle/concertina, Co. Clare, who got it from his mother who was born on Scattery. The ruins of St. Senan’s monastery are still on Scattery but all the people moved off the island in the mid 1900’s. Now you can hire a rowboat near Kilrush and go to the island for a picnic. Kelly recorded the tune in 1975 with Ceoltoiri Laighean, Gael Linn CEF.047. His version is simpler than the one posted here and it makes the tune ‘brighter’. The Irish title is: Sleamhnan Inis Cathaigh.

X: 2
T: Scattery Island
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: Dmaj
|: F2 A dcd FAA dcd | e2 A cBA ef/e/d cBA |
FGA d2 d FGA dcd | e2 A cBA B2 c d3 :|
|: aba faf d3 def | g2 e f2 d ede efg |
a3 f2 e d2 A dcd | e2 A cBA B2 c d3 :|

Niamh Ní Charra -
Limerick Redowa / Going for Water / Oakum’s / Strawberry Tree
Dublin 15.09.2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40oISRC1KVU

play video

All in the family, even if t’other way round -

X: 1
T: Going For Water
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: Dmaj
|: aba f2 d aba f2 d | e2 A cBA e2 d cBA |
aba f2 d aba f2 d | e2 A cBA f2 e d3 :|
|: F2 A d2 f F2 A d2 f | e2 A cBA e2 d cBA |
F2 A d2 f F2 A d2 f | e2 A cBA f2 e d3 :|

# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Weejie

Going from the Redowa into slides is just plain silly, and then another change - duh!? 😛 ~ however nice the playing is, and doing my damnedest to try and ignore the accompaniment…

[2 a3 f3 d3 dcd | e2 A cBA f2 e d3 |]

I find this ‘slide’ very American sounding, it precisely reminds me of a tune I heard on a CD of Ozark fiddle music, though my memory of it is un-precise! I think it was a one-phrase like waltz that went on and on and would either get on your nerves or actually mesmerise you!

Bouncy version with simplified B part collected via a top melodion player from Yorkshire now based in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. He adds a fair few ornaments and flourishes but here’s the basiscs of it.

From the playing of Denis Doody. Called “Going to the Well For Water”. A version like this seems to be played in Kerry.

I thought ‘Going to the Well for Water’ was an alternative name for ‘The Kaiser’s Downfall’. The titles of slides and polkas is VERY confusing!