Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#2088 (Drunken Tinker)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording A RC (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel | 16 | AB | A Dorian |
Drunken Tinker, The / An Tincéir Ar Meisce / The Yellow Tinker / Yellow Tinker #1 / The Jolly Tinker / Dick Cosgrove's Reel / Dick Cosgrove's / Cosgrove's Reel / The Cosgrove Fiddle (also in G Dorian, also in G Mixolydian, also with 2nd part doubled; or, instead, two or three slightly different tunes could possibly be distinguished across all of these sources, in which case the titles of them would be probably The Yellow Tinker from Donegal, The Drunken Tinker from Connaught, and then Dick Cosgrove's, the one more similar to #552) (compare 1st part with 1st part of #552)
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). |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 | 8#2 | [HG] Hugh Gillespie. Classic Recordings of Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. Hugh Gillespie (fiddle). |
| 1960 | 1.15#1 | [SRyan C] Seán Ryan. A Collection of His Own Compositions and His Versions of Well Known Traditional Tunes. Seán Ryan (fiddle). |
| ~1973 | 2.18#1 | [FTIM] Festival of Traditional Irish [Music]. Discs 7 and 8 of Celtic Souls. Irish Celtic Ballads & Traditional Music. Joe Burke (accordion). |
| ~1973 | 12#1 | [4IC] Joe Burke, Finbarr Dwyer, Kevin Loughlin, John Whelan. Pure Irish Traditional Accordion. Session with Four Irish Champions. Joe Burke (accordion), Finbarr Dwyer (accordion), Kevin Loughlin (accordion), John Whelan (accordion). For this tune: Joe Burke (accordion). |
| ~1978 | 8#7 (8:33) | [KB Cap] Kevin Burke. If the Cap Fits. Kevin Burke (fiddle). For this tune: 3rd and 4th times with Jackie Daly (accordion). |
| 1990 | 1#1 | [A RC] Altan. The Red Crow. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Frankie Kennedy (flute, whistle, vocals), Paul O'Shaughnessy (fiddle), Mark Kelly (guitar, vocals), Ciaran Curran (bouzouki). |
| ~1995 | 1#2 | [PCny] Paddy Canny. Traditional Music from the Legendary East Clare Fiddler. Paddy Canny (fiddle). |
| ~1996 | 5#2 | [DByrn] Dermot Byrne. Dermot Byrne. Dermot Byrne (accordion). |
| ~2003 | 6#2 | [MatH] Brendan Bulger, Marty Fahey, Kathleen Gavin. Music at the House. Brendan Bulger (fiddle), Marty Fahey (accordion, piano), Kathleen Gavin (piano). |
| 2006 | 12#2 | [NNW] Eliot Grasso and Dave Cory. North-by-NorthWest. Eliot Grasso (pipes, flute), Dave Cory (banjo, guitar, octave mandolin). |
| ~2007 | 7#2 | [ATrgs 1] Athena Tergis. A Letter Home. Athena Tergis (fiddle). |
| ~2008 | 11#1 | [UaC] Oisín and Conal Hernon. Up and Coming. Oisín Hernon (accordion, whistle), Conal Hernon (banjo, guitar). For this tune: Oisín (accordion). |
| 2009 | 11#1 | [RoClare] Riches of Clare. Eamonn Cotter, Conor McCarthy, Oisín MacDiarmada, Padraic O'Reilly. |
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 #52 in [SIMB] Tony Sullivan. Sully's Irish Music Book. |
| As reel #157 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music. |
| As reel #197 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music. |
| As reel #2 in [Ng] Alan Ng. Alan Ng's Transcriptions. |
| On page 120 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition. |
| As reel #73 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As reel #63 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. |
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): 1939