Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 871 (Humours of Whiskey)

RhythmBarsMode
Slip jig16E Minor
Transcription of first 2 bars of Humours of Whiskey
 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 Ch 2 (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):
Humours of Whiskey, The / The Humours of Whisky / Pléaráca an Fuisce / Drops of Brandy (also in B, also with parts reversed) (compare High Road to Dublin #834)
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
~191928#1[PT] Patsy Touhey. The Piping of Patsy Touhey. Patsy Touhey (pipes).View album details
196910#1[Ch 2] The Chieftains. 2. Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina, whistle), Seán Potts (whistle), Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), Peadar Mercier (bodhrán, bones), Seán Keane (fiddle).View album details
~198710#3[A 1] Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. Altan. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Frankie Kennedy (flute).View album details
199214#1[DOEI] various. Dear Old Erin's Isle. Irish Traditional Music from America. View album details
~199610#2[Sol 1] Solas. Solas. Seamus Egan (flute, whistle, guitar, pipes, bodhrán, vocals), Karan Casey (vocals), John Doyle (guitar, vocals), Winifred Horan (fiddle, vocals), John Williams (accordion, concertina, vocals).View album details
~19967#2[JK 3] James Kelly. Traditional Irish Music. James Kelly (fiddle).View album details
~20007#4[A AS] Altan. Another Sky. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Ciaran Tourish (fiddle, whistle, vocals), Dermot Byrne (accordion), Ciaran Curran (bouzouki), Mark Kelly (guitar, vocals), Dáithi Sproule (guitar, vocals).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 #66 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1.
On page 220 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.
As slipjig #15 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [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): 1919