The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #34722   Message #472315
Posted By: richardw
29-May-01 - 11:48 AM
Thread Name: Help: American Songs with Celtic Roots
Subject: RE: Help: American Songs with Celtic Roots
Looks like Patsy Geary's Jib may have migrated the other way - see below. It is also know as The Yellow Rose [of Texas?] but it was written in 1927 and YRT is documented to 1857.

Richard Wright

The Fiddler's Companion

Result of search for "Patsy Geary":

KIMMEL'S (JIG) [1]. AKA and see "Patsy Geary's," "The Yellow Rose." Irish, Jig. D Major. Standard. AA'B. Source for notated version: set dance music recorded at Na Píobairí Uilleann, late 1980's [Taylor]. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Blue Book), 1995; pg. 31 (appears as "Kimmel's No. 1").

MRS. GALVIN'S FAVOURITE (Rogha Bhean Uí Ghalbháin). Irish, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard. AABB. Mrs. Galvin was a fiddler and/or concertina player from just west of Kilkee, (althought she was originally from Lack, near Kilmihil), known to have been a lively player. This from a 1979 article in Dal gCais magazine: "Her family, McCarthy by name, were a musical people, and their house was a regular visiting place for the Inagh piper Garrett Barry, who is regarded as something of a father figure in the musical heritage of Clare. She became a close personal friend of Barry's before his death in 1901 and was perhaps one of the few people living in the 1930s who could speak authoritatively about the famous piper...Mrs. Galvin was a regualr competitor at Feiseanna in the 1920s and at one memorable Feis in Kilkee, in 1927, John remembers being present as she and Patsy Geary fought for first place in the fiddle competition. Geary beat her on that occasion, a feat which his son Sean used joyously refer to long afterwards as the time when 'the old man made the "Tocht" roll her sleeves down'. She was sometimes known as the 'Tocht' [= 'mattress'] Galvin because she was such a fat woman, and she had the habit of playing the fiddle with her sleeves rolled up." Source for notated version: Mrs. Galvin, from whom fiddler John Kelly/Seán O'Kelly learned the tune [Breathnach]. Breathnach (CRE I), 1963; No. 211, pg. 85.

PATSY GEARY'S. AKA and see "Kimmel's (Jig)" [1], "The Yellow Rose." Irish, Jig. Green Linnet SIF 3011, Bothy Band - "1975."

YELLOW ROSE, THE. AKA and see "Patsy Geary's." Irish, Jig.