Annotation:Larry Redican's Reel (1)
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LARRY REDIGANS/REDICAN'S (REEL) [1]. AKA - "Rags and Tatters," "Raddigan's," "Rattigan's Reel (1)," "Redican's Reel (2)." Irish(-American); Reel. G Major (Flahery, Miller, Mulvihill/Mulvihill): F Major (Mulvihill/Greenall). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Cranitch, Flaherty, Mulvihill): AA'BB (Miller). According to the late Galway and New York flute player Jack Coen, this was the first tune composed by Irish-American fiddler and banjo player, Larry Redican [1] (1908-1975). Redican was born in Boyle, Co. Roscommon to flute playing parents but chose the fiddle and studied with Frank O'Higgins in Dublin before he emigrated to the United States in 1928. He worked for much of his life for the cosmetics company Estee Lauder in New York. Redican was a member of the New York Céili Band.
The alternate title "Rags and Tatters" (as, for example,on Mary MacNamara's 2000 album "The Blackberry Blossom) is perhaps one of the more ingenious miss-hearings of the name of the composer, Larry ‘Redican’, variously rendered at "Rattigan," "Redigan," "Rhattigan" and others.
Sources for notated versions: flute player and piper Charlie Lavin (b. 1940, Cloonshanville, near Frenchpart, County Roscommon) [Flaherty]; Brendan Mulvihill (Baltimore, Md.) [Mulvihill]; Liam Greenall (Liverpool, England)[Mulvihill].
Printed sources: Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), vol. 1; No. 45 (appears as "Rattigan's"). Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1988; No. 155 (appears as "Rattigan's"). Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; p. 151 (appears as "Rhattigan's"). Miller (Fiddler's Throne), 2004; No. 190, p. 120. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 91, p. 24 and No. 234, p. 63.
Recorded sources: Green Linnett SIF1035, Brian Conway & Tony De Marco - "The Apple in Winter" (1981. Learned by Brian Conway from Donegal fiddler Denny McLoughlin, "while on a bus ride to Listowel, County Kerry for the 1973 Fleadh Cheoil"). Shanachie SHAN-79017, John & Phil Cunningham - "Against the Storm" (1980, as "Raddigan's"). Jimmy Keane (et al) - "The Big Squeeze."
See also listings at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]