In Memory of Mark Grasso

Tunes and sets we played on 2 Dec 2012:

A nice set led by Jason.

A pair of very common hornpipes.

A set from the Mulcahey family's CD "The Mulcahy Family", track 14 (first tune mislabeled as Father Kelly's)

A set from the Bothy Band CD "The Bothy Band 1975".

A local 'standard' set that we play almost every session.

Two tunes we haven't played in quite a while, which go nicely together.

Three great tunes!

Another nice tune that we haven't played for a year or two.

A much more common tune than the previous one.

Another of our local 'standard' sets.

A set from Billy McComiskey's CD "Out of the Box".

A pair of jigs composed by Seán Ryan.

A pair of Paddy O'Brien compositions.  We actually played them one at a time, but they would make a nice set.

Another local 'standard' set.

Finally found something that goes with Cliffs of Moher.  Maybe would work better if the order were reversed.

Two hornpipes from Martin Mulvihill's CD "Traditional Irish Fiddling from County Limerick".

A tune that Jason mentioned.

Below is a list of the most-often-played airs, hornpipes, jigs, reels, polkas, and slides during the past four months (from late July 2021 to late November 2021), derived from the tune tracking we've been doing in the InLikeFlynnTunes spreadsheet.  Roughly half the tunes we play each week are from this list.  New tunes or less-frequently-played tunes typically make up the rest of the session.

Tunes in this list have been played at least twice (2+) or three times (3+) in the past 4 months, and some of the more common tunes have come up almost a dozen times in that period.  The tunes in each group are listed in order of decreasing frequency, so those near the top of a group are more likely to come up than those at the bottom (assuming that past history will be reflected in future sessions).  So if you are not familiar with some of these tunes and want to learn them, you might want to focus on tunes that appear higher in each group before those that appear lower in the group.

While the list of tune names can be helpful, it isn't sufficient to fully identify what we're playing.  Many (perhaps most) tunes have multiple names, and quite often any given tune name may be associated with multiple tunes.  Both of these possibilities show up in the list below.  Alternate tune names show up as "(aka ...)" notes.  The entry for Pipe on the Hob is qualified as "(2-part in Dmix)" to distinguish it from the completely different tune with the same name that has 3 parts and is in Ador.  Similarly, the entry for the Blackbird is qualified with the note "[dc | B2BG A2A/B/c | ...]" to indicate which one of several hornpipes named The Blackbird is intended by specifying its incipit, or first few measures.  (This is 'abc' notation, an ASCII representation of music that can be used to transcribe tunes, format scores, and playback tunes.  More about this in a future post.)  

So take this list as a starting point, but it needs further qualification, which will be coming along soon.

Top 5 Airs (2+)

• Island of Woods
• Loftus Jones 
• Carolan's Draught
• Planxty Hewlett
• Morgan Magan (aka Morgan MacGann)

Top 9 Hornpipes (3+)

• Home Ruler
• Taylor's
• Bantry Bay
• An Comhra na dTonn (aka An Comhra Donn, The Brown Coffin)
• Boys of Ballycastle 
• Rights Of Man
• Kitty's Wedding
• Murphy's
• Blackbird [dc | B2BG A2A/B/c | ...]

Top 24 Jigs (3+)

• Blarney Pilgrim
• Out On The Ocean
• Gallagher's Frolics
• Helvic Head
• Jimmy Ward's
• Pipe on the Hob (2-part in Dmix)
• Rambling Pitchfork
• Morrison’s
• Dusty Windowsills
• Gander in the Pratie Hole
• Killavil 
• Geese in the Bog
• Goat on the Green
• Swallowtail Jig
• Tobin's Favorite
• Calliope House (in D)
• Father O'Flynn's
• Banish Misfortune
• Strike the Gay Harp
• Old John's Jig
• Hag at the Churn
• Garrett Barry's
• Lilting Banshee
• Monaghan Jig 

Top 10 Polkas (2+)

• Ballydesmond #2
• Ballydesmond #1 
• Britches Full of Stitches
• Bill Sullivan's
• O'Callaghan's
• Bridgie Con Matt's
• Ballyvourney (Baile Mhuirne) 
• Waves of Tory 
• Barren Rocks of Aden
• Ballydesmond #3 (aka Andy Boyle's)

Top 29 Reels (3+)

• Rolling In The Ryegrass (aka Shannon Breeze)
• Tommy Peoples'
• Mountain Road
• Father Kelly’s
• Lady Anne Montgomery
• Concertina Reel
• Trip to Durrow
• Congress
• Did You Wash Your Father's Shirt 
• My Love is in America
• Cup Of Tea
• Cooley’s
• Golden Keyboard
• Earl's Chair 
• Bank of Ireland
• Maid of Mt. Kisco 
• Rakish Paddy
• Tom Billy's (aka O'Keefe's Speed the Plough)
• Swinging on the Gate
• Roll Her in the Rushes 
• Foxhunter’s
• Virginia
• Silver Spear
• Jim Donoghue's
• Providence 
• Hunter's House 
• Claudette's
• Shoemaker's Daughter
• Woman of the House

Top 8 Slides (2+)

• Star Above the Garter
• Dan O'Keefe's
• Eileen O'Riordan's 
• Brosna #2 (aka Scartaglen, Donal O'Connor's)
• Patsy Geary's
• Brosna #1 (aka Trip to the Jacks)
• Palm Sunday
• Denis Murphy's