Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 919 (James McMahon's Favourite)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Double jig32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of James McMahon's Favourite
 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 PitS (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):
James McMahon's Favourite / James McMahon's Jig / Port James McMahon / James McMahon / Caherlistrane Jig / Caherlistrane / O'Keefe's Mother's (also in A) (composed by James McMahon)
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
196815#2[PitS] various. Paddy in the Smoke. Martin Byrnes (fiddle), Danny Meehan (fiddle), Bobby Casey (fiddle), Tony McMahon (accordion), Andy Boyle (fiddle), Jimmy Power (fiddle), Jimmy Dunleavy (fiddle), Sean O'Shea (fiddle), Con Curtin (fiddle), Denis McMahon (fiddle), Julia Clifford (fiddle), Tommy Maguire (accordion), Father O'Keeffe (mandolin), Lucy Farr (fiddle), Edmond Murphy (fiddle).View album details
~19887#1[PS 2] Kevin Burke, Jackie Daly, Andy Irvine, Arty McGlynn. 2, Patrick Street. Kevin Burke (fiddle, backing vocals), Jackie Daly (accordion, backing vocals), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, bouzouki, mandola, harmonica), Arty McGlynn (guitar).View album details
~19995#1[PF] Patty Furlong. Traditional Irish Music on Button Accordion. Patty Conway Furlong (accordion).View album details
20001#1[NR] Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington. The New Road. Charlie Piggott (accordion), Gerry Harrington (fiddle).View album details
~20041#3[Boh 4] Bohola. 4. Jimmy Keane (piano accordion, vocals, foot), Sean Cleland (fiddle), Pat Broaders (dordan, vocals), Kat Eggleston (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 jig #110 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. [available]
As jig #32 in [Ng] Alan Ng. Alan Ng's Transcriptions. [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): 1968