Annotation:Lass of Carracastle

Back to Lass of Carracastle

---

LASS OF CARRACASTLE, THE. AKA - "Carracastle Lass." AKA and see "Lady Mary Montague," "Miss Langford," "Morrison's Reel (3)." Irish, Reel. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Carracastle is a town in County Mayo, near the border with Sligo and Roscommon. Fiddle player Paddy Sweeney recorded the tune in New York on October 27th, 1934 as "The Lass of Carracastle" and a few months later, his fellow Sligoman James Morrison did so as well, under the title "Miss Langford." Sweeney (1894-1974) was originally from Moylough, near Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, and emigrated to New York, where he often partnered with fiddler Paddy Killoran. Though Sweeney has been credited as the composer, the tune is clearly a variant of "Lady Mary Montague," a late 18th-century composition of Scotsman James MacDonald.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Treoir.

Recorded sources: Decca 12006 (78 RPM), Paddy Sweeney (1934). Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40481, Brian Conway - "First Through the Gate" (20).

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Hear Paddy Sweeney's 1934 recording at the Comhaltas Archive [2]

---