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 Micho Russell’s version of the famous march “The Battle of Aughrim”. It is not very different from the common version but I love Micho’s phrasing of the tune and thought I’d post his way of playing it.
I learned Kitty Hayes’ Hornpipe from the great album “Rooska Hill” by Tony O’Connell and Éamonn O’Riordan. Kitty Hayes recorded this tune herself as Junior Crehan’s. I couldn’t find this hornpipe in the book of Junior Crehan’s compositions, There is howver a reel called Crehan’s Banbhs in the book which shares a lot of similarities with this tune.
I learned “The Girls of Banbridge” at a workshop with Terry Bingham during the Russell Memorial Weekend a few years back. I don’t remember hearing this jig in sessions but I think it’s a really nice tune nonetheless.
