An Bóithrín Buí waltz

I’ve submitted this tune in A-Major, although it could also be played in G-Major.

I believe that the title translates into something like "Yellow Lane" - no doubt an Irish-speaking member will be able to advise.

We call this tune which we learned from William Coulter’s album Celtic Sessions", simply "the yellow road", but we play it in F.

It’s actually - the (an) little (ín at the end of a word is diminutive) Yellow (most probably meaning Gorse/Whynn) Bothar = Road. Though a little road is/can be a lane. Note; in Ireland we’ll still call a little road - particularly if it has grass growing up the middle - a bohareen (pron; bore-een) h is silent.
Bothar = A cow across. 11C Bishop of Cashel decreed if a cow could stand across a road and another cow could pass this constitted a major thouroughfare and must be kept in good condition and taxed to keep it so.

Windybaer and Peter O’Connor - thanks for the great feedback.

Windybaer - if it’s usually played in F, I reckon that it must be a flat road!

Pete O’Connor - I just love the idea of using cows for measurement - beats the metric system, any day!

Reminds me of furlong (furrow long) = 1/8 mile. Apparently, the longest distance that you can plough in a straight line.

This setting if from the playing of uilleann piper Con Durham. A lovely air.

Thanks for posting this, Jack. I’ve been listening to it a lot since discovering it after a recent discussion here. A great tune indeed.

I’ll go with " The Yellow Road " goes great in our Bluegrass/ Old Time band, the Dobro is amazing on this tune.

I have just discovered two more recordings of this, much to my surprise. Téada have recorded this as a song with Irish lyrics on "In Spite of the Storm". The other recording is from the late Donegal fiddler Vincent Campbell, who played it on his album "The Purple Heather" under the name Seán McLaughlin’s. I only recognized this yesterday since I had recently learned it from Seán Ryan and Dan Coughlin’s recording.