I love this reel, “The Boys on the Hilltop”. I think I first learned it from Gavin Whelan’s album “In Full Flight”. It is played quite regularly in Doolin, I particularly enjoy playing it my friend JB Samzun on fiddle.
X:1
T:Boys on the Hilltop, The
R:reel
M:4/4
K:Ador
A2Ac B2AG|EGGF G2AG|E~A3 BABd|egdB BAAG|
A2Ac BGAG|EGGF G2AB|c2cA B2Bc|dBGA BAAG||
A2 (3Bcd egdB|GABc defg|a2fd egdB|GBdB BAA2|
a2fd egdB|GABc defg|afge fdef|gbaf gedB||
This is a true Doolin classic. “The Boy In The Gap” is a reel that is very much associated with Micho Russell. He used to play it after another fine reel, “Seán Sa Cheo”, but these days you hear them the other way around most of the times.
I learned “The Kilfenora Lass” from Tommy Peoples, it is on the “Fiddler’s Fancy” CD. When I learned this jig I thought it would be a common Kilfenora tune, but the truth is I actually never heard it in sessions.
“The Glen Road To Carrick” is a great reel from Donegal which I learned from the playing of James Cullinan and Dermot Byrne. They played an amazing concert at the Corofin Trad Fest back in 2013, and I learned this tune afterwards. They actually recorded it a good few years ago (1987!) for a TG4 program (see the video).
