Annotation:Andrew Carey
X:1 T:Andrew Kerr M:9/8 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:John Walsh - Caledonian Country Dances (London, c. 1745, p. 21) N:Published in several volumes and editions 1731-c. 1745 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G B2d dBG dBG|d2e efg f2A|B2d def efg|D2G GAB A2G:| |:g2d dBG dBG|g2e eae f2d|gfe dBd def|g2G GAB A2G:|]
ANDREW CAREY. AKA - "Andrew Kerr," "Andrew Carr." English, Scottish; Country Dance Tune (9/8 time), Slip Jig. D Major (Athole, Cole, Goodman, Gow, Kennedy, O'Farrell, Raven, Roche): G Major (Bruce & Stokoe, O'Flannagan, Vickers). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Athole, Gow, Hunter): AABB (O'Farrell): AABBCC (Goodman): AABBCCDD' (Kennedy). A tune popular enough to have been widely disseminated, perhaps originally a song air. A distanced version, perhaps a precursor, can be found as the vehicle for a country dance called "Scotland" in Playford's Dancing Master (1709) series, although a relationship has yet to be established. The Tune appears in London dancing master Daniel Wright's Collection of Scots Dances (1730, as "Andrew Kerr"), Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1740), Walsh's Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1735 & 1749), and Simpson's Compleat Tutor for the Flute (London, 1745). Later it was published in Thompson (1777), James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5 (Glasgow, 1797), and the Gow's Complete Repository, Part 1 (1799). The tune's title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. The titles naming Andrew as a 'Kerr' predate the 'Carey' titles (although Carr and Carey are also clan names). The Kerrs were a Scottish Middle-March Borders family well-known for their raiding, cattle reiving and feuding [1] (see George MacDonald Fraser's 1971 book The Steel Bonnets for a comprehensive text on Scottish and English Borders activities).
"Andrew Carey" and variant titles appears in several British musicians' manuscript collections, including William Vickers (Northumberland, 1770), John Fife (Perthshire and at sea, 1780, where it is noted as a "Retreat"), Joseph Crawhall (Northumberland, 1872), the Tiller ms., and Thomas Hammersley (London, 1790). It is contained in vol. 2 (p. 146) of the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper biography:James Goodman. In North America the tune was included by Henry Beck in his commonplace book for the flute (1786), Aaron Thompson (New Jersey, 1777-1782), William Morris (Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 1776-1777), and by Thomas Molyneaux in his flute copybook (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1788).
Bruce & Stokoe print lyrics to the tune, beginning:
As I went to Newcastle, My journey was not far,
I met with a sailor lad, His name was Andrew Carr.
And hey for Andrew, Andrew, Ho for Andrew Carr,
And hey for Andrew, Andrew, Ho for Andrew Carr.
A slower version of the melody is played in the Shetlands as "Yairds o' Finnigirth (The)." Peter Kennedy gives the alternate English title "Derby Carey." It has survived in Irish tradition as the slip jig "Hills of Tipperary (The)" and "Tipperary Hills," and "Michael Gorman's."