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Tag Archives: Session Tunes

Jenny’s Chickens (Baeol)

“Jenny’s Chickens” is a reel is usually preceded by “Bonnie Kate” due to the recordings of Michael Coleman and Joe Burke. Michael Coleman was the first to make this tune popular. I have been told that every time he played it, he would change it a little bit.  This may make the tune more interesting […]

The Maid(s) of Mt. Kisco (Ador)

This reel, “The Maid(s) of Mt. Kisco” is named after a town.  Mount Kisco is described as both a village and a town in Westchester County, New York State.  It is actually a small, but now very expensive town just north of NYC and bordering Chappaqua. One story,  according to Billy McComiskey, is that this […]

Blarney Pilgrim (G)

“Blarney Pilgrim” appears as tune #1099 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903). There are numbers of variations of this tune at sessions, and quite a bit of confusion over its tonal center – which is really of concern only to those backing/accompanying the tune. The melody was especially popular at sessions in the 1970s, and though a […]

Danny Pearl’s Favorite (A)

This tune is “The Red Haired Boy,” a translation of the Irish title “Giolla Rua” – which is Anglicize as “Gilderoy” – and is said to refer to King James V.  It is called “An Maidrin Ruadh” (The Little Red Fox) in Bunting’s A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland (1840). There is also […]

Drops of Brandy (D)

“Drops of Brandy” is a solid but simple slip jig often played in D or G.  It is #448 in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907), in G. It is in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes (2000) in both D and G (pp. 219-20).  James Merryweather, author of Merryweather’s Tunes for English Bagpipes (1989, pg. 47), holds […]

Tabhair Dom Do Lamh (G)

The tune “Tabhair Dom Do Lamh” is often played at Irish weddings — the Irish title is pronounced “Tour Dum Dah Lahw (or Lahv)” in Irish, and most often translated as “Please, Give Me Your Hand.” The tune is by the Irish harpist (and pipe player) Ruairi Dall Ă“ Cathain (c.1570-c.1653), whose name is variously […]

Foxhunter’s Jig (D)

“Foxhunter’s Jig” is a slip jig. The title of this four-part slip jig concerns, of course, an over-hill-and-dale foxhunt.  Thus, a few desultory comments are in order. The earliest known notation of this tune is c. 1847, where it is entitled “Dublin Gigg-a-Jigg” (in A) – both are old spellings of “jig,” and“gigg-a-jigg” is the hoary […]

My Darling Asleep (D)

The jig entitled “My Darling Asleep” is #925 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903).  The piper and pipe maker Leo Rowsome (1903-1970) used to recount a story in which Chief O’Neill (1848-1936) got this tune from Abram Sweetman Beamish of co. Cork, who called it “My Darling in Bed.” O’Neill thought that that title was just too suggestive, […]

Miller’s Maggot (G)

The single jig “Miller’s Maggot” shows up in some tune collections as a slide – some tune collections don’t even have a separate single jig category.  As for the title, it is often repeated that the word “maggot” is from the Italian magioletta, a type of dance.  I have also seen the following, or something […]

Dever the Dancer (Edor)

“Dever the Dancer” is a common session slip jig, and has been recorded many times.  It appears in O’Neill’s 1850, tune #1147, and O’Neill’s 1001, tune #431, so it is at least as old as the late nineteenth century. It has long been a popular slip jig in Ireland. As was all too common in […]