The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #14602   Message #733376
Posted By: Leeder
19-Jun-02 - 11:24 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Daniel O'Connell and His Steam Engine
Subject: RE: Daniel O'Connell & His Steam Engine
Philippa, I'm afraid I don't have scan or fax capability, but I'll see if I can find someone else to do it. Or I could put the song on a tape, if you'd give me a snailmail address. (I've got lots of El Cheapo 10-minute cassettes -- bought a bunch in bulk one time.)

Unfortunately, Edith Fowke typically didn't pay much attention to tunes -- she didn't sing herself, and always got somebody else to do music for her. Her notes don't deal with the melody of O.J. Abbott's version and any possible similarities to other tunes. From my memory of that version, I don't think it's spot on with any of the tunes mentioned above, although it might well be considered part of their tune families.

Another recorded source, if you can find the LP or get a cassette version of it, is by Tom Kines, Folkways FG 3522 (as Edith cites it), entitled (I believe) "An Irishman in North Americay". His version is likely learned from Abbott, and he was a folk revival singer rather than a source singer. Good at it too, with lots of respect for the tradition, but you'd probably prefer the source version.