The Light Side of the Tune - Brenda Castles

2021

‘The Light Side of the Tune’ is a collection of unusual versions of some of the well-known tunes in the tradition.

I’ve spent time over the last three years collecting interesting settings of some of the common tunes in the tradition. I realised that there were many tunes that I didn’t enjoy learning as a child and disliked playing as a teenager which I found I’d grown to love as an adult. Somehow you find the music in the tunes as you mature as a musician.

The common tunes can also get overplayed, and it can be easy to tire of them. I’ve found it interesting to revisit those tunes, to rediscover the music in them and the reason why they became so popular in the first place.

I heard Liz Carroll perform her gorgeous re-working of Miss McLeod’s reel, leading me to think about how tunes evolve and wondering about what more was out there in the archives. It’s fascinating to go back and hear how a tune can change over time and distance, with varying melody, time and key signatures and depending on the musician playing it.

I started looking in the archives, talking to other musicians and keeping my ear peeled for unusual, interesting versions of some of the common tunes in our tradition.

This album is the result of that work.

- Brenda Castles

Tracks

1. Miss McLeod's/Miss Lyon's/Miss Monaghan's  
   
2. The Connaughtman's Rambles/The Kesh/Tom Ginley's Fancy  
   
3. Molly on the Shore/Charlie Mulvihill's  
   
4. The Shaskeen/The Jolly Tinker  
   
5. An tSeanbhean Bhocht/The Scholar  
   
6. Páidín Ó'Raifeartaigh/The Kerry Huntsman  
   
7. Farewell to London/The Limerick Lasses  
   
8. Jenny's Welcome to Charlie  
   
9. If the Wind Would Shed the Barley/The Wind That Shed the Barley/The Hard Road to Travel/Sleepy Maggie  
   
10. Strawberry Blossoms  
    
11. Merrily Kiss the Quaker/Merrily Dance the Quaker/Going for Water  
    
12. Trip to Killarney  
    
13. Last Night's Fun/Rolling in the Ryegrass/The Killavil Bucks  
    
14. The Irish Washerwoman/Tatterjack Walsh/The Blackthorn Stick