The Spirits Of Wine reel

A tune from the playing of Johnny Doherty, the great Donegal fiddler.No one seems to know where it came from, but anyway, it survives, and is best played up tempo!

I’ve been trying to track down this tune for yonks!

I couldn’t get it by ear (well I could get bits of it … but "the whole" was always tantalisingly out of reach).

It opens a collection of Doherty’s work called "The Floating Bow" and there was never a more-arresting opening on any CD (and then he caps it all by going into Madame Bonaparte).

Liz Doherty (no relation, I think) plays a version on her latest album"Quare Imagination".

Superb.

Armagh won the All-Ireland and now I’ve found abc for this elusive tune. My life is nearly complete. If only I could wake up one morning and find that I’d somehow absorbed the ability to play the pipes just from listening to them, I could die happy!

The tune is also played by Altan on Runaway Sunday as the last tune on Johnny Doherty’s set of reels

A cheerful reel.
Joyful 1st part; going up and down.
Ecstatic 2nd part (my favourite); ‘standing on air’

That’s Irish wine for you!

Setting in A Major with chords.