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Annotation:Red Haired Lass
X:1 T:Red-Haired Lass, The R:reel Z:From Josephine Marsh at Kilfenora 1996. Z: Transcribed by Thom Pratt M:4/4 L:1/8 K:G DGGF ~G2 BG|GABG ~AGEG|DGGF GABd|egdB AGEG| DGGF ~G2 BG|GABG ~AGEG|DGGF GABd|egdB ~c2Bc|| ~d2 gd edgd|degd BGBc|~d2 gd edef|gedB ~c2 Bc| ~d2 gd edgd|degd BGBd|~c2 cA ~B2 BA|GA (3Bcd gedB||
RED-HAIRED LASS. AKA and see "Crusheen (The)," "Jim Seery's," "Kildoney Lasses (The),” “Peter Kennedy's Fancy,” "Pigeon on the Gate (10) ," "Shearing the Sheep (1).” Irish, Reel. Ireland, County Sligo, west Kerry. G Major (Cranitch, Flaherty, Moylan, Mulvihill, Taylor): A Major (Cranitch). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Cranitch, Flaherty, Moylan, Taylor): AA’BB (Mulvihill). A popular session reel, correctly classified as a single reel. Taylor (1992) notes that the tune on page 105 of Bernard Flaherty's Trip to Sligo (1990) is very closely related to "Red-Haired Lass," though "nonetheless incompatible." It is a classic tune recorded during the 78 RPM era by the master Sligo fiddler James Morrison with Leitrim flute player John McKenna (who paired it with another single reel they called "Tailor's Thimble (2) (The)”). The rather obscure fiddler Joseph Tansey of Gurteen, County Sligo, also recorded the tune in the 78 RPM era, calling it "Crusheen (The)" (Crusheen is the name of a village in County Clare, but the title could also be a Anglicized version of the Irish crúiscín, meaning 'jug'). The reel was entered into Book 2 of the large c. 1883 music manuscript collection of County Leitrim fiddler and piper biography:Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894) under the title "Pigeon on the Gate (10)."
