The Roaring Barmaid jig

This tune has become very, very popular lately. That’s partly because it has been recorded by groups like Dan

We like to perform our barmaid for Scottish Country Dancers. It’s always fun to watch them dancing, and see who’s paying attention to the music. We usually get a few odd grins in the B part. For concerts, play with the articulation you place on the first bar of the A part--there’s a lot of room for variation here.

This tune was written by Manchaster (?) banjo player Anthony “Sully” Sullivan. Here is my transcription:

X: 88
T:Roaring Barmaid, The
L:1/8
M:6/8
C:Anthony Sullivan
R:jig
D:Lunasa “Otherworld”
D:Michael McGoldrick “Fused”
D:Danu “Think before you think”
Z:Hauke Steinberg
K:G
~G3 EGD|~G3 EGD|~G3 BGG|dGG ~B3|
~G3 EGD|~G3 EGD|G2B deg|deg edB|
~G3 EGD|~G3 EGD|~G3 ~B3|dBG ~B3|
~G3 EGD|~G3 EGD|GAB deg|deg edB||
deg bb2-|bab deg|bb3ag|age deg|
bb3ab|agg bgg|agg egg|deg edB:||

the version I’ve been shown also has the “egg” in the second last bar (as opposed to a “deg”, which makes sense structurally - mirrors the A section)… but I think I prefer to have eggs in this particular basket.

I guess it’s all McGoldrick’s fault.

In answer to the question in the Discussion section about the Roaring Barmaid, the B part is structurally a normal jig as far as number of beats, but the structure of the melody makes it tempting to play the accents so that it just sounds like there are the wrong number of beats.

There are no pickup notes in the B part, but the first three eighth notes are often treated as pickups leading up to the ornamented dotted quarter that makes up the second half of the bar. So then you feel that dotted quarter as the downbeat and the rest of the B part in relation to that being a downbeat. For most people that means that you will feel the whole B part with a three pulse, meaning like a slip jig (9/8 is three groups of three eighth notes.) But if you interpreted it as a slip jig, you’d only have five bars, so it would still feel off.

Here it is by the way, so you can count it out for yourself:

https://thesession.org/tunes/91

If you accent the actual downbeat of the B part, which is a D, it’ll feel more like a jig. It still might feel different to you than a usual jig because of the contour of the melody. For example, the ascending phrase d-e-g-b happens three times, and while the accent is on the D the first time, the next two times, the B is the downbeat. Basically it’s one of those things where what the melody does influences your perception of the rhythm and kind of tricks you, which is part of what makes this tune so fun.

There is a nice mp3 from Tipsy House featuring ‘The Roaring Barmaid’. Sounds very cool. Available freely at Tipsy House’s wesite: http://www.tipsyhouse.com/listen.html

/Brian 🙂

first version of this i heard was kathryn tickell years ago before was ever into music and i can always rememebr it. only recently i went and learned it.

I thought I was crazy since I’ve known the light jig for two years and still haven’t been able to dance to this for the life of me. Now I know why.

THIS AIN’T! ~ Lunasa & Danu got the title wrong…
~ that jig is over here:

“The Butlers Of Glen Avenue”
Key signature: G Major
Submitted on June 30th 2002 by Jon Kiparsky.
https://thesession.org/tunes/820
& #7024 (if it survives the chop)

Here’s the better transcripts:

Submitted on April 2nd 2007 by megachug, #7024:

X: 1
T: Butlers Of Glen Avenue, The
C: Anthony “Sully” Sullivan
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|: DEG ED,B | DEG B3 | DEG ABe | dBe dBA |
DEG ED,B | DEG B3 | dBd gfe | dBA G3 :|
|: gab age | deg B3 | gab gab | dBd e2 d |
gab age | deg B3 | dBd gfe | dBA G3 :|

& # Posted on June 28th 2005 by will harmon:

A transcription of Crawford’s playing without all of the variations he tosses in goes as follows:

X: 1
T: Butler of Glen Avenue
C: Tony Sullivan
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|: DEG EDB | DEG ~B3 | DEG B2 e | dBe dBA |
DEG EDB | DEG ~B3 | dB/c/d gfe |1 dBA ~G3 :|2 dBa ~g3 ||
|: gab age | deg ~B3 | gab gab | dB/c/d e{f}e d |
gab age | deg ~B3 | dB/c/d gfe |1 dea ~g3 :|2 dBA ~G3 ||

Fiddlers and banjoists can play the Bs in the 1st and 5th bars of the A part as B, - an octave below what’s posted here, to great effect (and probably closer to Mr. Sullivan’s original).
~ Will Harmon

Megachug’s transcript above, I’d just cut-n-paste-n ran wit hit, the comma I didn’t catch… Here is the correction, one over ~

|: DEG EDB, | ~ though a low D, might suit the situation? 😏

|: DEG EDB, | ~ | DEG EDB, | ~ bars 1 & 5 of the A-part…

Kevin Crawford and James Cullinan play a jig by the name of The Mouse In The Mug (https://thesession.org/tunes/362) on the album In Good Company which has a first part with a lot of resemblance with the first part of The Butler…
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that its an alias for the same tune, but I would bet on an unconscious inspiration, as it so often happens in compositions.
Crawford mentions the resemblance in the CD sleeve.

sliding the high b from a b flat sounds good too =] i dunno…give it a try =]

Some barmaids really roars 🙂 A very “sessionable” tune

http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_203_4_convention_trio

I think I learned version #3 above as “Swinging on the Gate”.

Version of this tune by ‘The Flying Toads’ live at Bath Folk Festival here (last tune in set):

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

play video

www.flyingtoads.co.uk

Keith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_9qBG3WQgU

play video

I like to have barlines relate to the phrases of the tune when possible, so I put the barlines differently in the second part.
Taking the first version above, if you separate the 2nd part into five bars timed like this
9/8
12/8
9/8
9/8
9/8
then each new occurance of the deg motif occurs on a beat, excepting the second of the double occurrence (degdeg).
You have to have one bar in 12/8, otherwise the part doesn’t reach sixteen beats as it must. Besides having that 12/8 bar makes the bars match the appearances of that repeating phrase.

Copy and pasting the top version, here’s the second part as I said above. I took out the syncopation to make the structure clear. As you see four of the five bars begin with the deg motif.

9/8 |: deg b3 bab |
12/8 | deg b3 bag edB |
9/8 | deg b3 bab | agg bgg agg | deg deg edB :|

Middle tune from a fabulous set by Caitlyn Warbelow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jk2EatRFsw

play video

D major