Banjo Hangout Top 100 Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Songs

TOTW 03/11/23: Waltz written by James Scott Skinner, also known as &#34The Rose Of Sharon Waltz&#34 and &#34Rosebud Of Avonmore&#34

Trad reel in G played CH style.

TOTW for 2/5/2021. Played CH in G tuning on a Wildwood.

With a bit of guitar and mandolin too. A touch too slow perhaps.

TOTW 8/30/2019. A tuning. Clawhammer on a Wildwood Banjo.

Couple of traditional tunes here.

The O&#39Reilly&#39s of 17th century Ireland were amongst Turlough O&#39Carolan&#39s supportive patrons as the blind harpist traveled far and wide. When O&#39Carolan wrote a tune in their honor it was given the label &#34planxty.&#34 Unable to play for several weeks due to my broken shoulder, I offer something recorded previously on my clawhammer banjo.

Clawhammer take on Trad march. Double D tuning. Wildwood.

CH take on Irish Reel composed by Michael Gorman. AB AB. Wildwood. D tuning

This traditional air honors the Irish soldiers who left Ireland to fight for France. The last time they left marked the 1691 Treaty of Limerick , a momentous time in Ireland&#39s history which ended the Williamite war and the reign of King James, who left, too, after the Battle of the Boyne (which has a namesake tune as well). When the Chieftains recorded The Wild Geese they were picturing women singing on shore while the soldiers sailed off forevermore to fight elsewhere. At the end of my recording listen for the geese flying off...

There was really a harper in Ireland called Maire Dhall (Blind Mary) who is known to have taught harp to friends of Turlough O&#39Carolan (1670 - 1738), so it&#39s assumed he knew her, too. The melody is rather dramatic and you get a feeling of respect for this woman, who, like O&#39Carolan, must have traveled, played harp, and taught for a living.

This tune in 3/4 time is a rare find from Turlough O&#39Carolan (1670 - 1738). It&#39s only found in one source dated in the early 1900&#39s from Chief Francis O&#39Neill who had procured a rare notebook of old Irish tunes. The melody and title didn&#39t sync well until I made a slide-show video (in the BHO archive) of people happy with tears. As several of my O&#39Carolan pieces, I&#39ve added cello banjo in the background.

Here&#39s a clawhammered planxty from Turlough O&#39Carolan (1670 - 1738) in 6/8 jig time with cello banjo accompaniment.

Blackberry Blossom with some octave jumping

CH take on a Trad jig. vega 2, G tuning.

Three Bluegrass tunes played in an Irish style. Tunes are Whiskey Before Breakfast/ Big Sciota/ Daley&#39s

recorded these before, but i re recorded them last night for my Soundcloud and Bandcamp page and thought the good folks at BHO would enjoy them.

A West Virginia tune from the Hammons family... which i (quickly) done learnt fer the Tune O&#39 The Week! Played on a Vance tu-ba-phone, primarily in 2-finger style.

A tune inspired by a recent trip to the Emerald Isle. In Double C. Thanks too to the folks who didn&#39t comment but hit the like button. :)

This is a traditional tune from Scotland going back as far as 1549 in a published ballad format. Dave Hum played this tune and his videos are still on-line to view -- what an amazing picker he was! I&#39m playing on a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie openback, but also enjoyed it played lower on the cello banjo. You can compare the two, as I&#39ve uploaded them both.

After hearing Dave Hum play this I wondered if I could, too. It&#39s taken some effort, but here&#39s what I came up with, thanks to banjukebox&#39s tab and some further exploration. Though simpler than Dave&#39s expressive, creative version, it&#39s fun to play. I like the cello banjo&#39s lower tone on Tam Lin compared to my Whyte Laydie openback, but you can compare them as I&#39ve uploaded them both.

I learned this version mostly from Hot Rize

A planxty written to honor the head of an important Irish clan. The O&#39Connors were generous hosts of O&#39Carolan many a-time. A boyhood friend of O&#39Carolan&#39s was also an O&#39Connor named Dennis. They would have known each other as neighbors before O&#39Carolan&#39s blindness at age 18.

This tune of O&#39Carolan&#39s has a classical, ethereal sound. I dedicate it to Laurence Diehl, friend of O&#39Carolan&#39s music and inspiring to all us little folk.

Neill Connor of Sedgely, UK recently posted a video &#34challenging&#34 me to learn his favorite hornpipe which he&#39s been working on, so here&#39s my effort after 3 days. I simplified Ken Perlman&#39s original tab by changing the 5th string tuning and removing the difficult triplets. Though it&#39s still the same tune, it&#39s probably not what Neill hears more commonly in his country. I guess it&#39s an Americanized hornpipe.

Learned from folklorist, song collector, and skillful melodic banjo clawhammer picker Andy Cahan. I heard of him through his collections in Virginia with Alice Gerard, especially of Roscoe Parrish. This tune is one that Francis O&#39Neill published in his eminent book of Irish Music published in the first decade of the 1900&#39s. It was named his favorite by the man, Edward Cronin of Tiperary, who played it for him in Chicago when O&#39Neill was chief of police and collected Irish tunes as a hobby. It&#39s also the first hornpipe notated in that book with 1,850 selections. Perhaps it really is his favorite.

CH take on Irish Slide. Double D tuning. Vega 2.

Three reels names as in title

For the old-time Tune of the Week, 8/22/14. The lyrics are quite moving, telling of the real Jamie MacPherson of Scotland (1675 - 1700) who played a fiddle tune before being hung, who smashed his fiddle, and who would have been pardoned if someone hadn&#39t moved the clock up by fifteen minutes. I like the part of the chorus which says, &#34He played a tune and danced it roon.&#34 Here&#39s a link to the thread: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/290158

i think the first one is a Paddy Fahey tune and the second is the Coal Miner

Today Dave&#39s daughter, Perri, loaded an original tune Dave played while busking. We who looked forward to his videos here miss Dave and keep his music alive. I&#39m trying a clawhammer version of this tune and also enjoyed looking up the site called Lulworth Cove in Dorset. I figure Dave must have brought his family there.

I guess I will always like this tune, even though it has had a lot of exposure.

Great Irish session tune.

Clawhammer take on trad 3 part dance tune. Supposed to be in D, but I&#39m in C. Wildwood.

Clawhammer take on a Reel from the Shetland Islands written by Ian Burns. G tuning but way low.

With guest appearance by Travis Wright

Whiskey Before Breakfast TOTW 11/8/13. G tuning but tuned way low: d#A#D#GA#

When I originally learned this I used clawhammer tuned to double D. Then I learned it in open G 3-finger picking style. Now I&#39m trying it again with clawhammer after more than 30 years. It&#39s coming back to me and I still think it&#39s amongst the prettiest tunes ever written. The story goes that Sheebeg, Sheemore was the blind harpist&#39s first composition in 1691. It&#39s meaning is &#34Little Mountain, Big Mountain&#34 and was named for a location where a battle between fairy peoples allegedly took place.

The Hotpoint Stringband, with Hilarie on banjo

Two Celtic tunes to begin Spring break.

A nice brooding set of hornpipes I learned from the album &#39If the Cap Fits&#39 by the wonderful Irish fiddler Kevin Burke. The first is in G Minor, the second in A Minor. (Caislean an Oir is the Irish for &#39The Golden Castle&#39)

Trad Reel in A. CH.