Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#416 (Crooked Road)

Rhythm ?Bars8-bar phrase structureMode ?
Reel16ABG Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Crooked Road
 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 MC (details in the Discography below).
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Crooked Road, The / The Crooked Road to Dublin / Crooked Road to Dublin / The Smiles and Tears of Erin / Gol agus Gáire na hÉireann (1st in set The Lady's Pantalettes on DC1; mislabeled as The Ravelled Hank of Yarn on WC 2)

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
~19241.9#1[MC] Michael Coleman. Michael Coleman 1891-1945. Michael Coleman (fiddle).View album details
197120#1[DC1] various. The Drones and the Chanters. Irish Pipering. Séamus Ennis (pipes), Peadar Broe (pipes), Leo Rowsome (pipes), Paddy Moloney (pipes), Dan Dowd (pipes), Tommy Reck (pipes), Willie Clancy (pipes).View album details
197311#2[WC 2] Willie Clancy. The Pipering of Willie Clancy. Volume 1. Willie Clancy (pipes, whistle).View album details
197513#1[JnKlly] John Kelly. Irish Traditional Concertina and Fiddle Music. John Kelly (concertina, fiddle).View album details
~198814#2[SWW] Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin. The South West Wind. Traditional Music from County Clare. Ronan Browne (pipes), Peter O'Loughlin (fiddle).View album details
~199012#2[CmA 1] various. The Coleman Archive Vol. 1: The Living Tradition. View album details
199412#1[MH 2] Martin Hayes. Under the Moon. Martin Hayes (fiddle).View album details
~19942.1#1[GL20] various. Green Linnet Records. The Twentieth Anniversary Collection. View album details
~199613#2[JB 3] Joe Burke, Charlie Lennon. The Bucks of Oranmore. Joe Burke (accordion), Charlie Lennon (piano).View album details
~19971#2[NaCnn 1] Na Connerys. Celtic Sessions. Paddy Glackin (fiddle), Kevin Glackin (fiddle), Sean Og Potts (pipes, whistle), John Regan (accordion), John Wynne (flute), Tom McDonagh (bouzouki), Mark Kelly (guitar).View album details
19984#1[JWh] John Whelan. Come to Dance. John Whelan (accordion).View album details
~20081#2[RossBr] Ben Lennon and Tony O'Connell. Rossinver Braes. Ben Lennon (fiddle), Tony O'Connell (concertina).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 #101 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1.
As tune #81 in [WC] Pat Mitchell. The Dance Music of Willie Clancy. [available]
As reel #27 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
On page 18 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.
As reel #50 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #63 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. [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): 1924
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2009 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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