Annotation:Tom Billy's Jig (1)

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X:1 T:Tom Billy’s Jig [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig K:Amix ~a3 ece|edB BAA|a^ga Ace|dcB Ace| a3 Ace|edB BAF|GBd g3|edB Ace:| |:g3a3|bag fed|gaf gdB|BAB def| gfg a3|bge gab|age dBe|1 ABA A2f:|2 ABA A2|| |:B|c3d3|ecA cBA|ABA cBA|ABA Aed| cBc d3|ede gab|age dBe|1 ABA A2:|2 ABA A3||

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TOM BILLY'S JIG [1] (Port Tom Billy). Irish, Jig (6/8 time). A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'CC' (Breathnach, Mulvihill, Songer): AA’BB’C (Moylan). Tom Billy Murphy (1879-1944), a native of Glencollins Upper, Ballydesmond, Co. Cork, was an influential fiddler and teacher in the Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border during the early twentieth century, and was a contemporary of the great Kerry fiddler Pádraig O’Keeffe. Tom Billy himself learned much of his repertoire from a blind fiddle player named Taidhgin an Asail (Tadhg O Buachalla/Tadeen the Fiddler).

The tune became popular after Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, famous fiddle playing siblings from Lisheen, Gneeveguilla, Co. Kerry, recorded it on their 1969 LP "The Star above the Garter" (Claddagh Records CC5). Denis Murphy was known for his vast repertoire of tunes, which included settings of tunes taught by Pádraig O’Keeffe and Tom Billy. Murphy's version of the jig has been published in Breandán Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann (vol. II, no. 48 – transcribed from Murphy's playing; vol. III, no. 13 –  transcribed from Murphy and Clifford).

Accordion player Johnny O’Leary, who was born in Maulykeavane, Co. Kerry (10 km from Lisheen) and played with Murphy extensively over the 38 years of their friendship, has also been recorded playing this jig; the tune has been included as no. 241 in Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra: Music From the Cork-Kerry Border (1994; 2014). O’Leary said he had never heard Murphy play this particular tune until Murphy and Clifford recorded it on the LP "The Star above the Garter": “He kept tunes up his sleeve all the time that I usen’t get. I got the land of my life when I asked him for it and ‘I thought you had it’, he says, ‘I always had that after Tom Billy.’ But he knew well I hadn’t it” .

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