Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 656 (Follow Me Down to Carlow)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel24ABBB Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Follow Me Down to Carlow
 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 JDSC (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):
Follow Me Down to Carlow / Follow Me Down / Bí Liom / An Ríl Cam / The Crooked Reel / Miss Murphy / Bonnie Annie / Dinny Delaney's (also in A or E, also singled; 2nd part has widely different settings, included here) (compare as song #657 and as slide #3233)
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
~197710#1[JDSC] Jackie Daly, Séamus Creagh. Jackie Daly. Séamus Creagh. Jackie Daly (accordion), Séamus Creagh (fiddle).View album details
~198112#1[BMc] Billy McComiskey. Makin' the Rounds. Irish Traditional Music. Billy McComiskey (accordion).View album details
~199812#1[MvC 2] Moving Cloud. Foxglove. Paul Brock (accordion), Maeve Donnelly (fiddle), Manus McGuire (fiddle), Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhrán), Carl Hession (piano).View album details
~19982#2[MMR 2] Mike and Mary Rafferty. The Old Fireside Music. Mike Rafferty (flute, pipes), Mary Rafferty (accordion, whistle).View album details
~20061#2[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

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 #1281 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #1282 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #547 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #107 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1.
As tune #129 in [WC] Pat Mitchell. The Dance Music of Willie Clancy. [available]
As reel #170 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As tune #146 in [FT] Randy Miller. The Fiddler's Throne. [available]
As tune #122 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): 1903
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
Start at