I saw this tune, and I thought that Irish American Reel would be a great tune to play as part of my Saint Patrick’s Day collection of Fiddle Tune a Day. I sight read the tune 2 days ago when I decided to read the first page of Cole’s 1000 fiddle tunes. I figured that since they were at the beginning of the book, there must be a reason. I worked it out yesterday, and gave it a little spit shine today.
Irish American Reel has some nice twists and turns in it to keep it interesting. I hope you enjoy hearing it as much as I enjoyed working it up.
Irish-American Reek According to Fiddler’s Companion
IRISH-AMERICAN REEL. AKA and see “Great North Reel,“ “The Narrowback.” American, Reel. USA, New England. F Major. Standard tuning. AABB. New York musician, researcher and writer Don Meade identifies this as a version of “Lee’s Double Clog,” (AKA “The Narrowback”) also printed by Ryan (pg. 160), and says it was a favorite tune of New York fiddlers Larry Redican and the late Andy McGann (d. 2004).
