Chickens Gone to Scotland

Bó Mhín Na Toitean

I have two yellow goats

Happy tune! Also, listen to this version by Oarla O'Lionair.

Star of Munster

John Kelly's Reel

I learned this tune this afternoon from the album, Reed Only by Brian McNamara and Tim Collins. 

Cutting Ferns

Here's a polka I learned from some recordings a friend sent me who is currently a masters student of traditional Irish music at the University of Limerick.

Goodbye Girls

Another Old-Time tune!  I learned this one off of Rayna Gellert's and Susan Goehring's album "Starch & Iron."  I listened to it over and over today at work.  It's such a cool, unpredictable tune.  I think Rayna learned this tune from Andy Cahan.

Sean Ryan's

Today a jig in A dorian!

The Maid(s) of Mount Cisco

So I'm back after a bit of a break!  (I wasn't about to learn a new tune each day during the holiday break when my time was better spent sitting and watching Star Trek Voyager on Netflix, or visiting Yellowstone National Park...)  This is a lovely reel, and I learned a unique version from MacDarra Ó Raghallaigh's playing.

The Banks of the Lough Gowna

Today I returned to Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin's recording A South West Wind to learn a tune. That CD is pure gold. This is jig on the album.

Cloonagroe

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

John Doherty's

Irish tunes are not often crooked, the style being more closely married to general dance types that require a square meter.  But here's one, perhaps composed in order to trip some dancers.

The Northern

This is probably a traditional tune but its original name could be something else.  I learned it off a Liz Carroll and John Doyle album, "In Play."

The Green Fields of Glentown

For my senior recital in college I performed Bach's Chaconne, the final movement in his Partita No. 2.  It was 17 minutes long.  (I can still remember most of it, too, I think.)  The seeming endlessness of the Chaconne appeals to me, so I really like reels that have more than 2 parts and wind around the fiddle like a twisty mountain road.  Tommy Peoples writes great tunes like that, and here's one.  It was suggested to me by a youtuber who also plays the fiddle who knows I love a nice long reel.

Concert Reel

I'm not complaining or anything, but I have a massive headache today.  I just moved across the country from sea level to about 4800 feet.  Being this much closer to the sun has brought out the vampire-hide-in-basement tendencies in me.  All I want to do is crawl into a dark room.  Instead I did yard work and played the fiddle.  See that?  Fighting off my unsocial tendencies?  It's not easy.

Cousin Sally Brown

Time for some more Old-Time!  I really enjoy Dirk Powell's playing and so I learned his version of this tune.  I don't know if I'll ever break the habit of feeling the beat in an Irishy ahead-of-the-beat way instead of an Old-Time behind-the-beat way.  But that's fine.

Tolka Polka

This is a fun tune.  I don't know that many polkas, being more of a jig and reel girl myself.  But there are a few fiddlers that make them sound so beautiful.  I learned this polka off of a youtube video of Kevin Burke.  The tune itself was written by Donàl Lunny.  There are three parts to the tune, and the 2nd and 3rd parts have some jazzy syncopation to them.

Sally Gal

Some people call this tune "Tie Your Dog Sally Gal," but Bruce Molsky said this is because on a very old recording people misheard "This song is titled Sally Gal" for "This song is Tie Your Dog Sally Gal."  It goes by both.