Annotation:Kenmure's Up and Awa'
KENMURE'S/KENMUIR'S ON/UP AND AWA' (WILLIE). AKA and see "Boys from the West (The)," "Brewer's Daughter (The)," "Caledonian Quadrille - Figure 3a," "Clogher Cross," "Graham's Brook," "Hexham Races," "I Will if I Can (1)," "Jude's Farewell," "Kenmore Lads," "Quadrille Set No. 1 - Figure 6," "Sandy's Bonnet." Scottish (orig.), Canadian, Irish, American; Jig (6/8 time). Canada, Prince Edward Island. USA, New England. G Major (Cole, Hamilton, Kerr): A Major (Miller & Perron, Sweet): E Flat Major (Gow): F Major (Hall). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Hall, Hamilton): AABB (most versions). The once popular "Kenmure's up and awa'" appears under a variety of titles in printed and manuscript collections throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900, p. 174) cannot find this once-popular tune published earlier than 1792, although it is supposed to have been taken from the Jacobite song "The Fairhaired Lad." The Scots national poet Robert Burns wrote the lyrics to the air from which the song takes its name here ("Kenmure's up and awa', Willie") while on a visit to Kenmure Castle, New Galloway (Dumfries and Galloway). His song was published in John Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (vol. 4, no. 359). The 1st Battalion of the Cameronians (the Scottish Rifles), even after the British army reorganization of 1881, continued to play this tune for their parades-in-review. Some see resemblances to the Irish air and jig usually known under the title "Kinnegad Slashers (The)," but O'Neill's "I Will if I Can (1)" is a close version of the "Kenmure" tune. Northumbrian musicians generally know it as "Hexham Races."
The tune appears in the music manuscript copybook of fiddler John Burks, dated 1821. Nothing is known of Burks, but he may have been from the north of England. It is also contained in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England. See also "Sandy's Bonnet," a bagpipe version from Glasgow piper, pipe teacher and pipe-maker William Gunn's 1848 collection.
