The Hag At The Churn jig

Most people will know this one from the version by The Bothy Band.

They put it together with The Pipe On The Hob, another great tune in my opinion.

I find this tune has a great "circular" quality to it. It’s fun to play it over and over. It kind of builds up each time.

I’ve always played this one as the last tune in a set. I could never think of anything to follow it. Any ideas?

How about following it with Jim Ward’s Jig—-it’s a nice key change, and another very catchy, simple jig (that Paddy Keenan’s pretty fond of playing as well!)!

You can’t follow THIS tune with anything. It is a great circular tune and one that just grows and grows.

I play the Geese in the Bog before it. Seems to suit my style

"Hag at the Churn" / "The Hag’s Purse" / "The Old Hag in the Kiln"
I was dropped as a child ~ 😉

I used to play "Hag’s Purse / Hag At The Spinning Wheel / Hag With The Money / Hag At The Churn".

Has anyone worked out a good sequence for the jig The Hag at the Churn as played by Paddy Keenan? Thanks

I have a recording of who the artists I’m not sure of their names, but they play The Irish Washerwoman, Old Hag At The Churn, Humours of Whiskey, then pause for a brief moment and go into Elizabeth Kelly’s Delight. Although the last two are slip jigs to my knowledge, it sounded alright. I don’t think they were the Chieftains either.

This is a simply gorgeous tune.

Was lucky enough to hear this tune played a by a guy on Uilleann Pipes at a session.

Here is an interesting quote from the Fiddler’s Companion:

"Caoimhin Mac Aoidh says a correct translation of the Irish title would be “Hag in the churn.” This refers, he maintains, to the folk superstition that witches would inhabit a churn to steal butter. They could not abide this particular tune, however, so it would be played as a ward when the chore of churning butter was done. It was a terrible and telling mark if a woman left the house during this ritual."

I have just noticed that most of the other ‘hag’ tunes are in D mixolydian. Perhaps witches can’t stand tunes in that key.

I’ve got that same recording tin_whistler. Now I’m a little confused about the third tune! I had punched it into the search a while ago and gotten the slip jig "The Kitten," (the second half of the midi matches the tune) but some of the midis of "Humors of Whiskey" sound like the exact same tune. There sure are a lot of versions of that one on the site.

The number of versions on site are just a small example… A few more can be found here, courtesy of John Chambers ~

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/ndx/HU.html

There is a good pipe version of this on the McKeon’s Dusty Millar. They play the Horseshoe after it and it sounds great.

My favourite use of this tune is in Gaelic Storm’s "The Farmer’s Frolic." They start out with Ramblin’ Pitchfork and then move into Hag by the Churn. I agree that its difficult to do anything after this tune as its such a great circular buildup. Love it.

A good set (to my ear) can be found on The Long Grazing Acre by Paddy Keenan and Tommy O’Sullivan: Lost And The Found / The Hag At The Churn / The Wind Off the Lake.

It was this recording that has spurred me to learn all three tunes (two down, one to go).

Piping Version

Slight variant of the B section turnaround, from Patirck Madden’s album "Sounds of St Andrews".

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

play video

Setting from The Celts.