Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#1833 (Steampacket)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording BtB (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel | 16 | AB | G Major |
Steampacket, The / The Steam Packet / Steam Packet / The Steam-Packet / An Bád Gaile / The Steam Boat / The Mountain Lark / The Mountain Lark No. 2 / Fuiseog an tSléibhe / New Tobacco / The Gauger / An Colamóir Súgach / An Colamoir Sugach / An Colamór Sugach / Last House in Connaught / The Connacht Rangers / Lady O'Brien's Reel / Frieze Kneebreeches / Touhey's Favorite / The Father Henebry's Reel / O'Connell's Reel (follows The Banks of the Suir on GP; in set Ballinakill Reels on GCJR; 2nd in set Midsummer's Night on Drv 5) (also in Mixolydian) (compare Mountain Lark #2223)
Discography
Here are all recordings of this tune considering only the indexed recordings. I have discovered by careful listening that these sources are in fact musically the same tune, regardless of the tune titles they use, key changes, retuning, etc.
Click 
to hear the first 12 seconds.
to hear the first 12 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| 1919 | 22#1 | [PT] Patsy Touhey. The Piping of Patsy Touhey. Patsy Touhey (pipes). |
| 1928 | 9#3 (1:49) | [WW 2] The Wheels of the World. Early Irish-American Music. Classic Recordings from the 1920s and 1930s. Vol. 2. James Morrison (fiddle). |
| 1928 | 18#3 | [BtB] Paddy Killoran, James Morrison. From Ballymote to Brooklyn. Paddy Killoran (fiddle), James Morrison (fiddle). For this tune: James Morrison (fiddle). |
| 1928 | 19#1 | [BFair] Ballinasloe Fair. Early Recordings of Irish Music in America. Michael Cashin (fiddle). |
| 1937 | 10#1 | [IDM 2] Past Masters of Irish Dance Music. Michael Grogan (accordion). |
| 1940 | 6#1 | [SE 6] Séamus Ennis. The Return from Fingal. Séamus Ennis (pipes, vocals). For this tune: (pipes). |
| ~1941 | 3#2 | [GP] The Gentlemen Pipers. Classic Recordings of Irish Traditional Piping. William Andrews. |
| ~1947 | B.1#1 | [JDrn] Johnny Doran. The Bunch of Keys. Johnny Doran (pipes). |
| 1957 | 1.9#3 | [SltSdt] Seoltaí Séidte. Setting Sail. Denis Murphy. |
| ~1959 | 6#3 | [GD] From Galway to Dublin. Early Recordings of Traditional Irish Music. Denis Murphy (fiddle). |
| ~1959 | 21#1 | [CmA 1] The Coleman Archive Vol. 1: The Living Tradition. Mary Ellen Giblin (fiddle). |
| ~1962 | 1#2 | [GP] The Gentlemen Pipers. Classic Recordings of Irish Traditional Piping. Liam Walsh. |
| 1973 | 13#1 | [WC 3] Willie Clancy. The Pipering of Willie Clancy. Volume 2. Willie Clancy (pipes, whistle). For this tune: (pipes). |
| ~1975 | 1#1 | [PK 1] Paddy Keenan. Paddy Keenan. Paddy Keenan (pipes, whistle, low whistle). |
| ~1978 | B.2#1 | [NF] Joe Shannon, Johnny McGreevy. The Noonday Feast. Joe Shannon (pipes), Johnny McGreevy (fiddle). |
| ~1981 | 8#2 | [CtL] Peg McGrath, Mary Mulholland, Kathleen Smyth. Cherish the Ladies. Disc 9 of Celtic Souls. Irish Celtic Ballads & Traditional Music. Peg McGrath (flute), Kathleen Smyth (fiddle), Mary Mulholland (piano). |
| ~1988 | 7#2 | [SWW] Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin. The South West Wind. Traditional Music from County Clare. Ronan Browne (pipes), Peter O'Loughlin (fiddle). |
| ~1991 | 12#2 | [PG 2] Paddy Glackin. Rabharta Ceoil. In Full Spate. Paddy Glackin (fiddle), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitar, bodhrán). For this tune: with Robbie Hannan (pipes). |
| ~1995 | 13#3 | [KC 1] Kevin Crawford. 'D' Flute Album. Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhrán). For this tune: (flutes). |
| ~1997 | 5#3 | [CKeane 2] Conor Keane. Oidhreacht. Conor Keane (accordion). |
| 1999 | 2#1 | [GCJR] Gerard Commane and Joe Ryan with Eoin O'Neill. Two Gentlemen of Clare Music. Gerard Commane (concertina), Joe Ryan (fiddle). For this tune: Gerdie Commane (concertina). |
| ~1999 | 1#2 | [Drv 5] Dervish. Midsummer's Night. Cathy Jordan (vocals, bodhrán, bones), Tom Morrow (fiddle, viola, vocals), Shane Mitchell (accordion), Liam Kelly (flute, whistle), Séamus O'Dowd (guitar, fiddle, harmonica, vocals), Michael Holmes (bouzouki), Brian McDonagh (mandola, mandolin, vocals). For this tune: 1st 2 times (flute). |
| 2001 | 2#2 | [FDys] Davy Spillane and Kevin Glackin. Forgotten Days. Davy Spillane (pipes, whistle), Kevin Glackin (fiddle). For this tune: (pipes), (fiddle). |
| ~2002 | 3#3 | [LitN] Christy Barry, Conor McCarthy, Cyril O'Donoghue. Late . . . in the Night. Christy Barry (flute, whistle, spoons), Conor McCarthy (accordion), Cyril O'Donoghue (bouzouki, guitar). |
| ~2005 | 1#1 | [JCt 5] John Carty. I Will If I Can. John Carty (banjo, guitar, fiddle). For this tune: (banjo). |
| ~2005 | 3#3 | [MMhn] Martin Meehan. Three's Company. Martin Meehan (flute, bodhrán). For this tune: (Eb flute). |
| 2008 | 10#3 | [RedW] The Red Wellies. The Red Wellies. Claudine "Beanie" Odell (fiddle), Duncan Wickel (fiddle, pipes), Vincent Fogarty (bouzouki). |
| ~2008 | 3#2 | [TDeM] Tony DeMarco. The Sligo Indians. Tony DeMarco (fiddle). For this tune: with Jerry O'Sullivan (pipes). |
| 2009 | 1#3 | [RoClare] Riches of Clare. Maeve Donnelly (fiddle), Charlie Harris (accordion), Conal Ó Gráda (flute). |
Bibliography
Here are all transcriptions of this tune considering only the indexed books, listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.
| As tune #1244 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. |
| As tune #517 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. |
| As tune #78 in volume 3 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. |
| As tune #45 in [WC] Pat Mitchell. The Dance Music of Willie Clancy. |
| As tune #84 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1. |
| On page 129 of [TOC] Tomás Ó Canainn. Traditional Music in Ireland. |
| On page 5 of [SK] Sean Keane. Fifty Fiddle Solos. |
| On page 59 of [M] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. 3rd Edition. |
| On page 101 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition. |
| As reel #320 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As tune #150 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. |
If you are considering using the above transcriptions to help you learn this tune, I invite you to check these practical Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music. See also: So why do you bother indexing books and abc?
Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1903