Miss Thornton’s reel

My buddy Jay Gilbert (Guitar) put this into ABC’s tonight, it shows up on a lot recordings that I can think of but somehow isn’t a session staple. It is an excellent tune, have fun.

Miss Thornton ?

= 16 bars and with a ‘skip’, another masquerading as a reel, but hey, it ain’t half bad either way…though I have my preferences…

or do the very long list of highly respected musicians [ 14 recordings ]who have recorded it all have it wrong?

It’s a nice reel, and, as with so many highlands, with the seperation of need and the association of a dance form, hey, they make nice reels too… There’s quite a smattering of Highlands doing that duty as single reels…and why not…

For the ‘FORMAL APOLOGY’, as some of my comments seem to have been taken other than I thought I’d meant - click on my name and read on…

Fed up with idiots and apologies for nothing, that has since been removed…

Harry Bradley recorded an excellent highland version of this tune.

Nothing to apologise for here, ‘c’. If you like it as a fling good on you. Recordings by professional musicians aren’t the be all and end all. Well, maybe nowadays it is, but it shouldn’t be.

Another way to play it:

K: Gmaj
bg~g2 bgag|egdg egdg|bg~g2 bgag|egfa ~g3a|
bg~g2 bgag|egdg egde|~g3a gfed|1 egfa ~g3a:|2 egfa gedB||

This is almost how Hammy Hamilton plays it with Paul McGrattan on his solo recording "The Moneymusk", on which it’s mistakenly listed as "The House on the Hill". Later Paul McGrattan recorded it under the wrong name on his own album.

This tune is recorded as "The House on the Hill" on Dave Sheridan’s album, "Sheridan’s Guesthouse."

X: 1
T: House On The Hill, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
|: G2B/c/d gdBd | cBA2 cedc | BGAF GBdg | ecAF GFED |
G2B/c/d gdBd | cBA2 cedc | BGAF GBdg |1 ecAF G4 :|2 egfa g4 ||
|: bggg bgag | egdg egdg | bggg bgag | eaag a4 |
bggg bgag | egdg egdg | bgaf gfed |1 e/f/gfa g4 :|2 ezf/e/f gedB ||

Now I’d like to correct myself. According to Michael Clarkson, the title "House on the Hill" originally comes from a recording of Roscommon flute master Packie Duignan: http://irishflute.podbean.com/2007/03/23/the-house-on-the-hill-the-ashplant-reels/ So, it’s not necessarily a "wrong" title of the tune among many Sligo-Leitrim-Roscommon musicians.

In Kerr’s collection the tune goes by the name "Through The Fields". I learned this tune years ago from a High Level Ranters LP called "High Level". There it also bore the name "Through The Fields", and the Ranters followed it with the Tarbolton.

Version from a session recording from Patrick Ourceau and Eamon O’Leary.