The titles naming Andrew as a 'Kerr' predate the 'Carey' titles (although Carr and Carey are also names used by the same clan). The Kerrs were a Scottish Middle-March Borders clan-family well-known for their raiding, cattle reiving and feuding.
Andrew Carey
Played by: Abby Newton Source: Redwing Music RWMCD 5410, Abby Newton - "Castles, Kirks and Caves" (2001) Image: Kerr Crest & Coats of Arms.
"Andrew Carey" and variant titles appears in several British musicians' manuscript collections, including William Vickers (Northumberland, 1770), John Buttery (Lincolnshire British army fifer, very early 19th century), Joseph Crawhall (Northumberland, 1872), the Tiller ms., and Thomas Hammersley (London, 1790).
It is contained in vol. 2 (p. 146) of the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper James Goodman (musicolgist) (probably copied from J.T. Surenne's 1854 collection).
In North America the tune was included by Henry Beck in his commonplace book for the flute (1786), Aaron Thompson (New Jersey, 1777-1782), William Morris (Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 1776-1777), and by Thomas Molyneaux in his flute copybook (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1788).
Bruce & Stokoe print lyrics to the tune, beginning:
As I went to Newcastle, My journey was not far, I met with a sailor lad, His name was Andrew Carr. And hey for Andrew, Andrew, Ho for Andrew Carr, And hey for Andrew, Andrew, Ho for Andrew Carr.
Although we are not trained musicologists and make no pretense to the profession, we have tried to apply such professional rigors to this Semantic Abc Web as we have internalized through our own formal and informal education.
This demands the gathering of as much information as possible about folk pieces to attempt to trace tune families, determine origins, influences and patterns of aural/oral transmittal, and to study individual and regional styles of performance.
Many musicians, like ourselves, are simply curious about titles, origins, sources and anecdotes regarding the music they play. Who, for example, can resist the urge to know where the title Blowzabella came from or what it means, or speculating on the motivations for naming a perfectly respectable tune Bloody Oul' Hag, is it Tay Ye Want?
Knowing the history of the melody we play, or at least to have a sense of its historical and social context, makes the tune 'present' in the here and now, and enhances our rendering of it.
Andrew Kuntz & Valerio Pelliccioni
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