The Mug Of Brown Ale jig

Sorece: Michael J. Cashin, Chiago, 13 July 1928 (recorded as "Ginger’s Favourite")
Transcription: Gian Marco Pietrasanta (craniota on "thesession.org")

This is VERY similar to Delaney’s Drummers in O’Neill (305) and at the session I used to play in in Reading (UK) Frank the banjo player called it Paddy in London. Whatever! It’s a good tune and we used to put it with The Top of the Cork Road I think…it’s along time ago now and my brain is full.

I also know this by Paddy in London. Mug of Brown Ale is often attached to this one:

EAA ABd| edB ccA| BGG DGG| BdB BAG| EAA ABd| edB efg| edc BcD| eAA A

I’ve also heard this real with a high C at the end, rather than a C#. I like the slide into the high C better, personally.

My Former Wife: https://thesession.org/tunes/3418
The Jug of Brown Ale: https://thesession.org/tunes/2393

Did I really spot this tune in The Commitments, played by a fiddler who turns up at Jimmy Rabbitte’s audition, or have I mistaken it? (And while we’re at it, there’s also a piper, what does he play?)

This is a different variation I know, heard it on the Planxty 2004
Live DVD.

eAA fAA|~g3 age|dBA GFG|BAB dBd
eAA fAA|gfg age|dBd gdB|1BAG Agf:|2BAG A2d||
efg ~a3|aba age|dBd g2f|gag ged|
efg aba|aba age|dBd gdB|1BAG A2d:|2BAG Agf||

It also sounds a bit like Old Man Dillon, the first tune on Terry Bingham’s…

I don’t think so. You probably confused two different tunes with similar titles.

Also recorded by Tom Ennis and James Morrison on a 78 rpm

A lower key version sometimes comes up in Clare, associated with the fiddleplaying of Nora Lenihan, the sister of singer Tom Lenihan

http://www.concertina.net/tunes_detail.html?rec_id=157

I am especially fond of this tune. The renowned luthier and multi-instrumentalist, Grit Laskin, lived for a time in my parents’ house, and he wrote lyrics to this tune called The Life Of A New Mother when I was a baby. It is recorded on his first album, Unmasked. He called the tradtional melody Paddy in London, but it is also known as The Clare Jig. I also listened to this many times on La Ronde des voyageurs, by Éritage, which is one of my favourite records of all time. Interestingly, both of these records were originally released under Fogerty’s Cove Music, which was singer Stan Rogers’ independant record label.

Here’s a version from the fiddle playing of Mairin Fahy, a niece of Aggie Whyte from Ballinakill, East Galway. It has a nice ending.

K: Ador
f|eAA fAA|~g3 age|dBA ~G3|BAG Bcd|
eAA fAA|~g3 age|def gdB|cAA A2:|
z|efg ~a3|aba age|def ~g3|gba ged|
efg ~a3|aba age|def gdB|cAA A2:|

Because of the similar endings, I like it followed by The Humours of Ballingarry: https://thesession.org/tunes/4191

There’s an audio clip of this jig over at http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/mug_of_brown_ale/.

Ever since I learned this tune I couldn’t stand the fact that its most common name around here is "The mug of brown ale." Such a bland name for such a great tune. I think I’ll call it the Clare jig from now on.

And what’s wrong with a good mug of brown ale? If you’d been working your ass off ploughing fields all day since before sunrise, or cutting turf, or fishing, or delvering mail, or milking cows ~ or any of the other hard labour not uncommon in old Eire, well, sitting down at the end of the day to a mug of brown ale, the usual, from light brown to black-brown porter/stout ~ that is as near to heaven as you might imagine for that small moment of relief of thirst and the settling affect on worries and the loosening of the tools of chat that a little thirst quenching and alcohol can bring ~ and the perfect complement and lubricaation for music and maybe a little dancing…

Don’t devalue what you obviously don’t understand… ;-)

Haphazardly renaming tunes because you don’t like the name of a thing, proof you also lack an understanding of the roots to it all ~ well, that’s also missing the point to this thing we’re wrapped up in, and, really, a kind of disrespect. We’d be in hell if every tune was named after the county of its origin… How many "Clare Jigs" would we be wading through? Isn’t "Gan Ainm" enough mystery for you? It’s not like common sense will help here, so you go ahead and rename everything you dislike the accepted or more common names for. Most of us have a name or more for that sort of thing, and none that I can think of are complementary… :-/

~ but realizing that sometimes alternates for ‘gan ainm’ and a failing memory come in handy… However, there are more interesting alternatives titles for this lovely little number… like the lovely lilt and promise of a "Mug of Brown Ale"…. :-)

You can listen to this played by the Flanagan brothers here:
http://juneberry78s.com/sounds/mo33013t01.mp3

"Also known as Apples In Winter"

- what? Isn’t that a completely different tune?

This seems to be the way it is played at my local session. Similar to version 3 above, but a bit more straightforward.

T: The Mug Of Brown Ale
S: Ballydehob Session
R: jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Ador
eAA fAA|gfg age|dBA G2 A|BAB dBd|
eAA fAA|gfg age|dBd gdB|BAG A3:||
efg a3|aba age|dBd gfg|gag ged|
efg a3|aba age|dBd gdB|BAG A3:||

This tune was recorded by two Longford musicians in the 1920s. The accordionist Frank Quinn (1893-1964) of Greagh, Drumlish, Co. Longford recorded it in December, 1922 entitled "The Basket of Shamrocks" while Packie Dolan (1904-1932) a fiddle player from beside Frank Quinn in Ballinamuck, Co. Longford recorded it in May 1928 as the second tune in a set entitled "The Cavan Lassies".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXvoH5S_JtM

play video

N: # Posted by Tash Ó Treasaigh ~ April 21st, 2014

I love this tune - it’s easy, lends itself to lots of simple variations and other tunes to play to and from, and sounds great on everyone’s instrument. At a house session over the weekend I suggested Indian Point and then looked at an open fat binder of tunes. "Hey, lets do this…."

So Mug of Brown Ale came after, then back to IP - just ‘cause. Sounded great.

So many choices!

"Also known as Apples In Winter"

- what? Isn’t that a completely different tune?

That’s the title I know it as. It’s on the Kerry Fiddles CD under that name which how I know it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiddles-Padraig-OKeefe-Clifford-Luachra/dp/B000092PTR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447233391&sr=8-1&keywords=kerry+fiddles

Today I heard it for the first time as Paddy in London - so I now have it three times over!

" It’s on the Kerry Fiddles CD under that name" - there is always the possibility that the track titles on that particular LP / CD could be wrong. Not at all an uncommon occurrence.

Oh for sure Kenny - I was just illustrating an instance in which this tune *was* listed as Apples in Winter (even though it’s nothing like another tune under that name.)

Source: Fintan Vallely
Transcription: gian marco pietrasanta