“Handsome Sally” is a reel I learned from Stéphane and Adam Shapiro. They used to have a great sessions in Cooley’s Pub in Ennistymon. I believe they got this tunes tune from Catherine & John McEvoy’s CD “The Kilmore Fancy”.
X:1
T:Handsome Sally
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:Edor
E2BE GEBE|E2BE AFDF|E2B,E GBdB|AFDE FEED|
E2BE E2BE|E2BE AFDF|E2BE GBdB|AFDE FEE2||
fedB A2Af|fedB AFD2|e2ef gfef|dBAG FDD2|
fedB A2Af|fedB AFD2|~e3f gfef|dBAG FEDF||
A great slide that I first heard from my friends Tom Delany and Caroline Keane with their band FourWinds. Shortly after they recorded it, I went down to Dingle and got Brendan Begley’s very first album (a gem) and also Jackie Daly & Matt Cranitch’s latest album, and “Con Carthy’s Favourite” featured on both CDs, so I figured I had to learn it !
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 Lads of Laois is a beautiful reel that I associate with the playing of Gerdie Commane, concertina player from Kilnamona. Michael Queally (fiddle) also recorded this tune on the band Moher’s first album, “Out on the Ocean”.
