Annotation:Mowing Machine (The)

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MOWING MACHINE, THE. Irish, Reel. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). The tune is a composition of the late West Clare fiddler Martin "Junior" Crehan (1908-1998).

The tune is similar in the 'B' part to Tipperary fiddler Seán Ryan's (d. 1985) "Dash to Portobello" (recorded by Ryan in 1958). According to Crehan's neice (as told to Philippe Varlet) "The Mowing Machine" was one of Crehan's earliest compositions, written in 1938. Junior's niece provided this ditty:

While mowing the fields one day in June,
The sounds I heard gave me a tune,
The gears and the blades as they cut the raheen,
So I called this tune 'The Mowing Machine'.
... (Junior Crehan)

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