The Best ITM Tune-Learning Tutor

The Rose in the Heather (D)

This jig, “The Rose in the Heather,” comes from the Sliabh Luachra region[1] (pronounced Schleeav-lokhra, with the ‘kh” as that middle-of-the-mouth growly bit), specifically on the Cork-Kerry border.  The Sliabh Luachra region is at the intersection of three counties: Cork, Kerry, and Limerick.  It is renowned for its musical style and for producing some of the great (southern) Irish players.  The tune here, called “An RĂłs Sa BhFraoch” in Irish, was first recorded in 1929 by Peter J. Conlon.  A Scottish hairy rock band from Dunfermline, recorded a tune called “Rose in the Heather” that has nothing whatsoever to do with the tune we’re working on.  So I you if someone tells you that this tune is on the 1975 Hair of the Dog LP, then chalk it up to a homographic quasi-malapropism.  The tune we’re learning is played all over the world.

Oddly, a rose bush couldn’t survive among heather for very long. Some say with conviction that the title is, in fact, a reference to the kind of love oft described by Willy the Shake.

For the ABC click Rose in the Heather

Chords:

D  A  /  D   /  G   / A    / D  A  / D   / G  A / D   : |

D  A  / D    /  G   / A   / D  A  / D    / G  A / D   : |

 

The Rose in the Heather, slow tempo (whistle)

The Rose in the Heather, med tempo

 

 

Rose in the Heather Jig

Rose in the Heather Jig

 

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