1.  

Kitty Lie Over, Munster Buttermilk

One of the records I love most is Seamus Ennis' Forty years of Irish Piping (Green Linnet CD 1000), where his music and stories are full of a mysterious, mythical magic...
You will find him playing and singing this first version of The Frost is All Over:
The herrings are boiled and the praties are roasting,
Kitty lie over close to the wall!
It may also be found in The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin (#191).

The second jig is another variant of The Frost is All Over, this time from Denis Murphy. We heard him playing it on The Star Above the Garter (Claddagh Records CC5CD).

2.  

Teampall an Ghleanntáin, Hickey's

Breandán Breathnach recorded both these tunes from Denis Murphy while
collecting for his books Ceol Rince na hÉireann. This first tune (CRÉ2 #280) is a real quare one - see what you make of it!
He doesn't appear to have included Hickey's in any of the books.
Hickey's was also played by Paddy Cronin for a Pure Drop programme that was never transmitted - Paddy was in great form, and it seems an awful shame that the programme never saw the light of day.

3.  

Mickey Callaghan's Slide, Winnie Hayes' Jig

We found this first tune on a tape of Patrick Kelly given to us by
Séamus Mac Mathúna. Isn't it shocking that with all the recordings available nowadays, you can't get a single track of this most wonderful of fiddle players. But then again, it makes it all the more exciting when you do eventually hear him! He did appear on two separate recordings, both sadly out of print - Ceol an Chláir (CCÉ CL 17), and Our Musical Heritage (RTÉ/Fundúireacht an Riadaigh) ? and both great treasure troves if you can get your hands on them!
The second tune could only be one of Micho Russell's - and you'll find it on Ireland's Whistling Ambassador (PWCD 80001). Winnie Hayes was a concertina player from Tullygarvan, Co. Clare, who lived to the ripe old age of a hundred.

4.  

Biddy from Sligo, Punch for the Ladies

Neillidh Boyle, the faery fiddler from Donegal, recorded Biddy from Sligo on May 3rd 1939 for a Regal Zonophone 78rpm disc. His music was wild, glittering, ethereal - he tells us he learned his music from the fairies.
I think you would believe him when you hear him play.
The second jig comes from one of the most exciting television series
ever made on traditional music - The Green Linnet - following Tony Mac Mahon and Barney McKenna as they busk their way around Europe! It is probably better known as Shandon Bells, being the first jig in O'Neill's.

5.  

Woman of the House, Rolling in the Ryegrass

Séamus Ennis plays the Woman of the House with Denis and Julia on the RTÉ Denis Murphy CD (RTE CD 183) (sometimes I hear Johnny Doran playing it inside my head!). Rolling in the Ryegrass is played by Denis on The Star. There is a hidden power behind its simplicity that does strange and wonderful things to me!

6.  

An Manglam, The Fairy Reel, I Have No Money

Marcus Ó Murchú is our source for the first tune, which translates as
The Cocktail! It is on his album Ó Bhéal go Béal (CICD 126) - I have misremembered a few notes here and there, but sure what harm!
The Fairy Reel is a great piper's tune - Tommy Reck plays it on one of the Our Musical Heritage tapes, and you might come across a great private recording of Willie Clancy playing it too!
Séamus Ennis is where we found the last tune - on The Best of Irish
Piping / The Pure Drop (TARA CD 1002) - and the title is regrettably indicative of my current financial situation...

7.  

The Hare in the Corn, Rathawaun

These are the opening tunes on The Star Above the Garter, and truly no one could ever hope to come close to the beautiful lyrical swing with which Denis and Julia imbue their music. We play them so you might be tempted to find The Star for yourself!

8.  

The Sporting Pitchfork, The Rambling Pitchfork

Our little homage to Patrick Kelly! There is a beauty and perfection in his music, born out of pure creativity rather than of the intellect.
I feel if you were to give him a few bits of cast-off tunes, he would sculpt them into something that could fly - like making an aeroplane out of a scrapheap!

9.  

The Lady on the Island, Seanbhean na gCártaí

The Lady on the Island is in wide circulation - a shameless hussy of dubious morality, while Seanbhean na gCártaí generally confines herself
to her native Sliabh Luachra. Denis and Julia play both on The Star!

10.  

Young Tom Ennis, The Rose in the Heather

Tom Ennis was a piper, and in the early 1920s he ran a music shop in New York.
This jig is on i gCnoc na Graí (Gael Linn CEFCD 114).
The Rose in the Heather is again from Denis Murphy (RTE CD 183), this time playing with Johnny O'Leary back in 1949.

11.  

An Londubh

The Blackbird appears in many guises, and this is my favourite.
I caught it from Dermy Diamond, who puts a spell on tune after tune,
turning them into things of a sparkling, unearthly and magical beauty!
We follow with a reel which I learned from Mick, and Mick learned from me.
Neither of us has a clue where it came from!

12.  

The Copper Plate, Paddy Gone to France, The Wind that Shakes the Barley

You might have seen a window into the wild, soaring spirits of Paddy Bán Ó Broin, Tony Mac Mahon and John Kelly, caught on camera many years ago and shown more recently on the first Come West Along the Road programme of the first series.
Mac Mahon and Kelly start playing the Copper Plate, while Paddy Bán rolls his eyes and throws the steps - the pure joy of life captured on television - I always find myself wishing I had been born a few decades earlier when I watch it.
Paddy Gone to France had the right idea - the music, the wine, the roses - and, of course, the women - maybe I'll follow him one of these days!
The last reel is one of the first tunes myself and Mick played together. I remember it particularly well - it was one of those rare times when the spirit of the music takes over and doesn't let go until it has played itself out.

13.  

Dillon Brown, Sarah Hobbs

Willie Clancy played this beautiful version of The Mountain Top for a collector called Chris Delaney in the early 1970s (you can get copies of his tapes from the University of North Carolina in America). Peter Laban found it in O'Neill's 1001 #527 with the name Dillon Brown. I know of two recent recordings of it - Enda Ó Catháin's fine CD Ó inné
go inniú (under the title Willie Clancy's), and the McCarthy's on
The Family Album.
Sarah Hobbs was a fiddle player with the Lough Gill Quartet. It was Tommy Keane that taught me this tune bearing her name. It is also noted from Sonny Brogan in Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1 (#110) under the title Bill Harte's Reel.

14.  

Na Ceannabháin Bhána, Máirseáil Alasdruim, Munster Buttermilk

Mac Mahon and Hill play the first jig in this lower key on Aislingí Cheoil.
I managed to get Mick to switch his allegiance from the key of G!
This version of Máirseáil Alasdruim came to us from Enda Ó Catháin, who recorded it on Ó inné go inniú. He learned it from Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh, who in turn learned it from Willie and Joe Kelly.
This Munster Buttermilk (not related to that on track 1) always takes me back to Queally's in Miltown Malbay, where twelve hours disappeared as I sat spellbound by Dermy Diamond's Alchemy. This was one of those tunes he turned from an ugly toad into a ravishing princess!

15.  

The Silver Spear, Mullin's Fancy

I remember recording all the My Job of Journeywork programmes from the radio when I was about eleven years old.
For years I used to listen to them over and over again, getting to know Patrick Kelly, Willie Clancy, Denis Murphy and all the others. But the greatest of all was The Silver Spear and The Dublin Reel, played as you'll never hear again by Séamus Ennis, playing as if the end of the world were upon him. The recording has since been released by RTÉ on
The Return from Fingal (RTE CD 199).
Mullin's Fancy is Packie Dolan's electric version of the Strawberry Blossom, or the Boys of Ballinahinch. Packie was born in 1904 in the same parish as my father - Ballinamuck, Co. Longford. He emigrated to New York in 1919, made a number of fantastic recordings, but died when the ferryboat exploded on his way to work. He wasn't even thirty years old. His recordings have been rereleased by Harry Bradshaw under the title Packie Dolan The Forgotten Fiddle Player of the 1920s (Viva Voce 006).