Kitty Gone A-Milking is a common session tune in the area. It is a reel very much associated with concertina players from County Clare, and has been recorded, among others, by Elizabeth Crotty, Kitty Hayes, Gerdie Commane and Tom Carey. I learned this tune through various sessions.
“The Heather Breeze” is one of the most common reel in sessions across Ireland. It is a very old tune which I have learned through sessions, but I associate it with Micho Russell and his brothers Packie and Gussie. They recorded it on the album “The Russell Family”.
I first learned “Josephine Begley’s” many years ago from Terry Bingham’s album, on which he calls this tune “Mairtin O’Connor’s”. I only found out in February 2021 that this hornpipe was in fact a composition of Frankie Gavin. It is the great flute and concertina player from Laois Tommy Fitzharris who provided me with this information.
The Kesh Jig is a very common session tune in Irish Traditional Music. One of memory that sticks out is a session with Sean Vaughan and Siobhan Peoples who started the session with this tune and great lift and energy.
