Annotation:Jerry's Beaver Hat
Tune properties and standard notation
JERRY'S BEAVER HAT ({h-}Ata-Featan Diarmaid/Diarmada). AKA and see "Cat in the Corner (4) (The)," "Cooley's Jig," "Paddy Get Up," "Returned Yank (The)," "When Sick is it Tea You Want?" Irish, Double Jig. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A popular session reel, that has crept into non-Irish traditions, popular as well among American contra dance musicians and Cape Breton fiddlers. The title references the centuries-long popularity of the beaver hat (until the mid-19th century), as beaver fur was a durable, water resistant and pliable substance for gentlemen's hats. The animal was hunted almost to extinction on two continents, thus effectively ending the fashion.
Sources for notated versions: flute player Colm O'Donnell (b. 1962, Aclare, County Sligo) [Flaherty]; accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; Reuben Smith (b. 1931, Blooming Point, Queen's County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; New Jersey flute player Mike Rafferty, born in Ballinakill, Co. Galway, in 1926 [Harker].
Printed sources: Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; p. 45. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; p. 10. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 164, p. 51. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 195, p. 113. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 71, p. 80. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 21. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 754, p. 141. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 40, p. 23. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 136. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Blue Book), 1995; p. 12.
Recorded sources: Gael Linn CEF 114, Noel Hill & Tony McMahon - "I gCnoc na Grai" (In Nocknagree). Larraga MOR1302, Mike Rafferty - "Speed 78" (2004). Lochshore CDLDL 1215, Croab Rua - "The More That's Said the Less the Better" (1992). Talcon Records KG240, Paddy Cronin - "The House in the Glen" (197?).
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]
Hear the tune played by the Moate Céilí Band at the Comhaltas Archive [4]