The Golden Castle

Today I learned a tune off of sheet music, which I don't ordinarily do. I prefer to learn tunes by ear most of the time. However, there's this free collection of hundreds of tunes you can download (for free!) by following this link. I got the whole thing printed out and from time to time I like to browse it for new tunes. Anyway this hornpipe was written by Junior Crehan, a Clare fiddler.

The Boys of Ballycastle

Here's a hornpipe I learned from Kevin Burke's playing.

The North Wind

Here's a simple hornpipe for you.

Confession: I sometimes really don't like hornpipes.  I'm not particularly in love with this one, but I liked the name since I did another wind-titled tune yesterday.  The changing season here in the Rockies manifests itself with really cold winds in the morning, but the afternoons still warm up, so you forget your jacket at work.

Dunphy's

I LOVE Saturdays.  I ran 9 miles this morning.  And THEN, I ate my body-weight in oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  Aw yeah.

Humours of Galway / The Golden Eagle

A friend on tradconnect.com issued me a challenge this morning to learn this hornpipe. So I did.  It's on a De Danann album in a track called "Humours of Galway," but the name of the tune is actually The Golden Eagle.

The Drunken Sailor Hornpipe

Not much to say today except that I like this tune.  It's nice swung the way Liz Carroll plays it, or a little straighter too.  It's nice fast and slow.  So all around, a very nice tune.  Plus the key of G minor is so deliciously melancholy.

Peacock's Feathers

So this project is still in its fledgling stages and I have only vague ideas of what I should do to sass it up a bit... a theme song?  a better camera?  Definitely I'd like a better microphone than the one built in my computer.  It's obnoxious.  But anyway, if you have some grand ideas, let me know!