Jack,I am not banned, neither do i have any other identies, here is the proof, ihave just posted on the session.Choice anxiety

It's one thing varying a tune a bit, or even a lot, but mostly you can do this in a session and the tune will come out sounding ok, even if you're new to that particular session.

But there are some tunes which have so many versions that are just so different that it's bewildering.

One example that's been going round and round in my head of late is the Connie the Soldier / Southwest Wind / Lake Shore family of tunes http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/373. This has been submitted to the database here several times, and although some have been deleted by Jeremy, four still remain.

Now I have about 10 recordings of this tune (at least, 10 that come to hand immediately) and some of these recordings are ones that I listen to regularly. This means that I have several versions of the tune in my head, and like I said, not just variations, but actually settings that are totally different but similar enough to be confusing.

So if I'm listening to one of these recordings I can probably play along with that particular version, but if someone asked me to start the tune, I'd go into spasms 'cause of all these conflicting versions in my head. I don't know if I'd even know how to start it. The one I want to play is my favourite setting from Charlie Piggot/Miriam Collins/Joe Corcoran, but it's probably the most uncommon setting of them all, which means it's less likely that others would join in in a spirit of tune sharing.

So 2 questions:

1) Which version(s) of Connie the Soldier do you prefer to play and which tend to get played in your session?

2) Do you have any "problem" families of tunes like this? If so, which ones?

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by Dr. Dow
Re: Choice anxiety

Oh no, my favourite one is the Chulrua one, that's the one I meant. It's incompatible with any other version :-(

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by Dr. Dow
Re: Choice anxiety

1) I think I favour Séamus Creagh's version, but only because it's the one with which I am most familiar.

2) The Ewe Reel springs to mind. The Clare and the East Galway versions are very different. I also have the same problem with Paddy Fahey tunes: because they're so intricately conceived, different versions tend to sound pretty awful sitting side by side, yet there are so many versions of each tune that it's a common issue. Paddy Carty's versions of quite a few Fahey tunes are very different from Fahey's own versions, even though they played together a lot.

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by Dragut Reis
Re: Choice anxiety

The one recorded by Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin is popular among pipers, I believe. That's actually my favourite version of Connie the Soldier, or The South West Wind.

A few years ago I tried to learn a couple of new versions of The Boys of the Lough. Listening to many recordings of it, I got confused with so many versions of it that I could't decide which ones to learn. The Tinker's Daughter is also played differently by different musicians. It's one of the hardest tunes to play together with others, especially in a new place.

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by slainte
Re: Choice anxiety

Yeah people don't seem to play Broderick's original version of that, which is much simpler than the session versions I've heard.

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by Dr. Dow
Re: Choice anxiety

Here now, what's this? A thread about actual tunes, playing music, sessions?! Rubbish!

8-)

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by Will Harmon
Re: Choice anxiety

Give up the coffee...

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by ceolachan
Versions on versions on versions ~

I do sympathize. I was working on an old recording by a box player I used to play with regularly in Dublin, a session that had its focus on music and dance from Sliabh Luachra. He had a ton of great tunes, but, listening to them this week, they are all quite unique, but they weren't there, in that hotel session just off the Liffey. There are versions for some of them on site, but they aren't his versions. While some are close enough that you could play them along with the well worn session versions, picked up from commercial recordings that tend to set things in stone, some won't work with those usuals... I have tended to either give in to whatever is being played, whatever version, or to just sit back and enjoy a brew and a listen. However, I do feel some pang in the heart that the commercial concrete has muscled out some really interesting versions, versions that in a sense might have more legit than something by The Chieftains, Planxty, The Bothy Band, Boys of the Lough... Yeah, a kind of sadness. I can still enjoy what's happening, but I can't deny there's a heartfelt regret.

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by ceolachan

Clarification ~ but they weren't unique to that hotel session, which was one of my regular weekly haunts...

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by ceolachan

Funny, as I think on it, I had to adjust what I played depending on which session I was at in that same city, Dublin...

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by ceolachan
Re: Choice anxiety

play the one you like best

# Posted on June 29th 2012 by Dick Miles