The Cottage in the Grove (reel): Brendan (eile)

The Cottage in the Grove (reel)

Often known as Tommy Coen's or Coen's Memories, I was drawn to this reel after hearing Charlie Piggott on De Dannan's album Mist Covered Mountain (1980) - pure class!

Clare banjoist Kieran Hanrahan also has a nice version on his 1998 album - Kieran Hanrahan Plays the Irish Tenor Banjo (you won't get a more straightforward title than that). 

I also came across another nice, steady version on YouTube this afternoon by Conor Tulley, Frank Hogan and Seán Casey (on banjo), who is the son of the famous West Clare fiddle player Bobby Casey. 

The tune was composed by the East Galway fiddler and accordion player Tommy Coen (1910-1974), perhaps most famous for another well-known reel - Christmas Eve. 

And so onto my attempt, which goes eventually goes astray ...

 You'll find Sheet Music and ABC notation HERE. Gach bua agus ceol!

Poll Ha'penny: Breandán, Fiddle

For some amusement... I decided to get a bit eccentric with this one...  It's an enchanting tune when played by a real player!  It's officially a hornpipe but can be slowed and twisted depending on whose playing... This is what you call the Breandán version!

The Sailor on the Rock: Breandán

I decided to take up the fiddle for this one.  I've been having a love hate learner's relationship with this bad boy of a string instrument for the past few years, and while my fingers have progressed better than the banjo, it still squeaks a bit.  Still, I think I'll incorporate it into the blog a bit more from now on and aim to eradicate the squeaks.

This tune is a belter of a session reel.  I think it's originally a clare tune, and if I'm not mistaken the great Junior Crehan was synonymous with it.  I'm open to contradiction there of course from real historians like Brendan eile!  Here's a lovely version that is to be found online from two great musicians, Antain MacGabhann on the fiddle and James Keane on accordion.  They follow the tune with Lucky in Love, one of my favourites, that was made famous by the great Leitrim flute player, James McKenna, way back at the start of the last century.

And here's my rather short & squeaky version

Sailor on the Rock (reel): Brendan (eile)

Sailor on the Rock (reel)

A popular session reel, the Sailor on the Rock can be found under Irish variations of its title - An Mairnéalach ar an gCarraig / Maraí ar an gCarraig - and also under the stranger name, Johnny with the Queer Thing! 

It has been widely recorded so there are literally dozens of versions by past and present masters, from Michael Coleman on fiddle to Harry Bradley on flute, from which to draw inspiration. Here's a great recording by Packie Duignan on flute and Seamus Horan on fiddle from an album entlitled Music from County Leitrim (1978).
 

There are also some great versions recorded on banjo - Gerry O'Connor (Time to Time, 1991), John Carty & Brian McGrath (The Cat that Ate the Candle, 1994), Kevin Griffin (Across the Pond, 2002) and Seán O'Driscoll (The Kitchen Recordings, 2003). I've been working from John Carty's recording - I love his style of playing! Here are two recordings seperated by an hour's practice during which I managed to increase the pace slightly. 

As always, thesession.org is the place to go to fnid ABC notation and sheet music and for tabulature try HERE

Drowsy Maggie Revisited: Brendan (eile)

Drowsy Maggie Revisited

There's an old Irish seanfhocal (or proverb) that goes cleachtadh a dhéanann maistreacht meaning 'practice makes mastery'. This for me is the challange and the purpose of the blog - to focus practice in order to build up a repertoire of tunes to session standard. 
  
Ever the wiser (probably because he's the elder of the two of us), Breandán reminded me over the weekend that we need to keep revisiting the tunes we have done in order to bring them up to speed without losing the ornamentation. So after an hour or so's practice this evening I managed to pick up a bit of speed on last week's version of Drowsy Maggie. You'll have to excuse the sound of the dishwasher!   

However, if I leave out the trebles, triplets, stops and chords I can play the same tune a little faster (but still far off the pace required for a session). 

I will keep at it and see how much progress I can make with this tune over the coming week.

Lark in the Morning (jig): Brendan (eile)

Lark in the Morning (jig)


A popular session tune, the Lark in the Morning is a four-part jig named after a small songbird. Other popular tunes, such as the Mountain Lark (reel), the Morning Lark (jig), the Lark on the Strand (jig) and the Skylark / Fuiseoigín na Spéire (reel), also recall this family of birds in their titles.

One version of a story, with many adaptations, tells of two fiddlers who having stayed up all night trying to outperform each other eventually agreed that the most beautiful sound came not from their fiddles but from the lark in the morning. 

My attempt at the Lark in the Morning is based (very loosely, I might add) on a brilliant live recording by banjoist Séamus Egan, founder of the Irish-American group Solas, which features on an album called Absolutely Irish. You can listen to a sample of his version HERE. 

Interestingly, English folk-rock band Fairport Convention recorded a version of this tune on their Liege & Leaf album (1969).

You'll find sheet music and ABC notation HERE and tablature HERE.

Blackbird: Breandán

My version of this popular hornpipe.  That brings to four the total from this month... I'll need to revisit all over the next few weeks to improve a good bit... until then, here's a rough draft of Naomi Campbell: