Annotation:Yellow Wattle (1)

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YELLOW WATTLE [1] (An Chleith Buí). AKA and see "Ladies Fancy (2)," "Ladies Walking Stick (The)." Irish, Double Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BBCC'. The tonality of the tune shifts and is somewhat indeterminate: the keys of G, C, A Dorian and D Mixolydian are all represented. The title may refer to to yellow wattle, or golden wattle, which is a flowering evergreen shrub. The tune was a great favourite of the renowned Doolin, north County Clare, tin whistle player Micho Russell (1989), who suggested that the title has “something to do” with young people becoming estranged from their parents and leaving home; they would “get the high road and the wattle.” Russell then described wattle as a hazel fishing rod used by coastal fishermen of long ago for fishing off the rock. “A man fell into the sea about fifty years ago. He would have drowned but for a long wattle another fisherman had” (see "Yellow Wattle (3)"). A special dance was made to the tune in County Clare. O’Neill’s other version, under the title “The Ladies Fancy” is also from Tralee, where Breathnach’s source is from. “The Ladies Walking Stick” is the title in Castleisland, notes Breathnach, who thinks the tune was originally for “the old pipes.”

Source for notated version: fiddler Pat/Paddy Sullivan, 1966 (Ardfert, north of Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland) [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 26, p. 15.

Recorded sources: Green Linnet GLCD 3009, Kevin Burke - "If the Cap Fits" (1978).

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