Annotation:Lady Kelly's Reel

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LADY KELLY'S REEL. AKA and see "Northern Lasses," "Up Roscommon." Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC. The melody was played by 19th century Mohill, County Leitrim piper Owen Brennan in a competiton with thirty other pipers sponsored by an Englishman who was passionate about Irish piping. Brennan won the first prize with the tune which was "viewed with special favor" (O'Neill, 1913). Brennan is also remembered for his habit of accompanying his friends and acquaintances who were emigrating, serenading them all the way to the port of Longford to send them on their journey to America. O'Neill (1922) remarks: "This famous reel as played by John Kelly a fiddler of phenomenal execution now living in San Francisco Cal., is a florid setting of Sergt. James O'Neill's 'Northern Lasses' printed in the O'Neill Collections. Kelly a native of Roscommon, Ireland, says this reel was known as 'Kelly's Reel' before his time. It was his masterly rendering of 'Lady Kelly's Reel' that won the championship for Owen Brennan an expert piper, as described on page 215, Irish Minstrels and Musicians."

Source for notated version: John Kelly (San Francisco) [O'Neill].

Printed sources: O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 201.

Recorded sources:

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