Annotation:Nervous Man (The)

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NERVOUS MAN, THE. Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. One of the better-known compositions attributed to Nenagh, County Tipperary, fiddler and accordion player Paddy O'Brien [1] (1922-1991). "The Nervous Man" is said to have been Willie Fogarty, a pupil of O'Brien's.

However, the reel bear a striking similarity to a reel composed by O'Brien's first cousin, Seán Ryan, called "Bill McEvoys (1)" or "Bill McEvoy's No. 1." Ryan's tune was published, sans title, in the periodical Treoir in Sept./Oct 1971, transcribed from the playing of concertina player Sonny Murray (Ennis, Co. Clare).[Information supplied by (Rev.) John Quinn in a personal communication, who also writes: "I have a similar version, again untitled, in an undated manuscript from among the papers of the Reilly family, possibly in Micheál Reilly’s handwriting, more than likely from the 1970s, but not copied from the version in Treoir."]

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Brien (The Compositions of Paddy O'Brien), 1992; p. 40. O'Brien (The Definitive Collection of the Music of Paddy O'Brien 1922-1991), 2009; p. 85.

Recorded sources: Nimbus NI 5350, Liz Carroll & Billy McComiskey - "Dear Old Erin's Isle: Irish Traditional Music from America" (1992).