Salmon Tails Up the Water

At our January 28 meeting, Kat Eggleston & John Daly introduced us to "Salmon Tails Up the Water." Kat described it as another top tune at celtic music session gigs. Hunting it on YouTube, I found some really rocked-out versions, and it seems to be a fav at contra dances, too. So once we get the tempo up to dance-speed, we should have as much fun with this tune as we do with "Morrison's" or any other jig.

First off, the group recording made by Kim of Kat & John playing the tune slowly: here's the link to it on sound cloud:
https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/salmon-tails

Here's a very shaky but rip-roaring version from a gang of youngsters calling themselves "OysterBand" who are rocking the Tønder Festival audience in Winnipeg, Canada. Catch the frontman fiddler in the deep back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzaauxlKdhI

And here's the sheet music, should you need it. The beat is on the 1 & 3.

Swish those tails!

The Blarney Pilgrim

In Kat & John's first session for Winter 2015's RISK, we learned an Irish tune Kat called "from the top 50 of Irish sessions"—"The Blarney Pilgrim." It's in 6/8 time, key of D, and Kat did it (after warning us not to try this ourselves!) in DADGAD tuning. I think I'll give it a whirl in Drop-D tuning later tonight...

First off, here's Kat & John playing "Blarney Pilgrim" on guitar and pipe. The recordings are on SoundCloud and the links will take you there—
https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/blarney-pilgrimkatjohn

and all of us trotting out the tune several times in a longish recording—
https://soundcloud.com/riskykayray/blarney-pilgrimall

Second, here's a YouTube of a couple guys on guitar and violin who give this tune a faster spin—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snszf3tK3QE&list=RDSnszf3tK3QE#t=38

And finally, here's the sheet music. The penciled-in letters stand for alternative notes you can play instead of those right above. Enjoy!