Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 198 (Boy in the Boat)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Boy in the Boat
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording NF (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Boy in the Boat, The / An Buachaill sa mBád / The Little Boy in the Boat (also in G)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd 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. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded
Track
#Tune
[Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
~1978B.4#1[NF] Joe Shannon, Johnny McGreevy. The Noonday Feast. Joe Shannon (pipes), Johnny McGreevy (fiddle).View album details
~19982#2[FFH] Far From Home. Tri. Turner Collins (accordion, whistle, vocals), Bob Newton (octave mandolin, mandocello, bodhrán, vocals), Daithi Wolfe (fiddle).View album details
200614#2[MMrch 2] Marcas Ó Murchú. Turas Ceoil. Marcas Ó Murchú (flute, whistle).View album details
~200611#3[Tda 3] Téada. Inné Amárach. Seán McElwain (guitar, bouzouki, banjo), Damien Stenson (flute), Tristan Rosenstock (bodhrán), Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle, piano), Paul Finn (accordion).View album details
~200611#2[Lu 6] Lúnasa. . Trevor Hutchinson (double bass), Sean Smyth (fiddle, whistle), Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhran), Cillian Vallely (pipes, whistle).View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – 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 #173 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1.
As tune #24 in volume 2 of [AW] Eithne Vallely. Learn to Play the Tin Whistle.
As reel #220 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As reel #19 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #129 in [FT] Randy Miller. The Fiddler's Throne. [available]
As reel #47 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. [available]

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): 1963