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Category Archives: Jig

Alabama Rick’s (A)

This Jig was penned by my friend Mike Dugger, and has been recorded by a number of different folks.  About this tune Mike writes “I wrote the tune in 1997 in my garage when I lived on 10580 Gillette Street, in Overland Park, Kansas. I don’t know where it came from but I had just […]

Carraroe (D)

This light-hearted jig is a member of a large family which includes “The Blue Bonnets Over the Border,” “The Scotsman Over the Border,” “Mist on the Meadow,” and “The Mist in the Glen,” among many others.  The co. Limerick fiddler Martin Mulvihill (1919-1987) called this “The Portrowe Jig” in his First Collection of Traditional Irish Music […]

Paddy’s Return (Dmix)

This jig, “Paddy’s Return (from Scotland),” is in a large tune-family.  Some members have been extremely popular for more than 400 years.  The members of the family go by many names, and will go by each other’s names as well.  We play this jig pretty close to the way it’s played by the Foinn Seisiún and found […]

Tenpenny Bit (Ador)

This jig has been around a long while, and has a number of titles. It’s tune tune #969 with the title “Three Little Drummers” in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903) — i.e., O’Neill’s Music of Ireland — and tune #189 and with the same title in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907) – i.e., Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems.  It is also called “Cock in the Heath” which is sometimes […]

Dusty Windowsills (Ador)

Though common in Irish sessions, this three-part jig was actually composed by Johnny Harling (b. early 1960s), a flute player from Chicago.  Two somewhat conflicting stories have been put forth about the title. According to the least plausible one, this jig was inspired by the Kansas song “Dust in the Wind” and originally titled “Dust on the […]

Atholl Highlanders (Amix)

The four-part jig “Atholl Highlanders” is originally a Shetland tune, and originally called “The Three Sisters.”  I don’t think anyone has called it by the original name for a very long time, however. It is a characteristic Scots pipe march, though there are some odd things about it. As a pipe march it is known […]

Jig of Slurs (D|G)

Though Scottish musicians so often assert that Irish tunes are “originally Scottish” that the very claim is now met with an unbelieving shrug, in this case it happens to be true.  It was composed by the Aberdeen piper George S. McLennan (1883-1927), who played before Queen Victoria as a boy.  According to the Fiddler’s Companion, in 1910 […]

Arthur Darley’s (D | Daeol |D)

This tune, “Arthur Darley’s Jig,” is also commonly known as “The Swedish Jig” and less well-known as “The Bruckless Shore.”  On the Arty McGlynn CD McGlynn’s Fancy (1994) the liner notes read “Arthur Darley arrived in Co. Donegal from Dublin to play the organ in a church somewhere around, it is believed, Bruckless.” Arthur W. […]

Tar Road to Sligo (D)

This is tune #836 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903), #99 in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907), and is also in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes (2000).  It is another tune made popular by Michael Coleman in the early part of the 20th century and the Bothy Band in the latter part.  On their eponymous first album, The […]

Paddy Clancy’s (D)

Another tune with several disparate names.  This jig was recorded, to name a few, by Michael Coleman (1891-1945) in 1928 under this title, by John McKenna (1880-1947) in 1928 with the title “Clancy’s Dream,” by Bobby Casey in 1959 under this title, and by the Bothy Band in the 1970s under this title.  In fact, […]