Annotation:California Girls
Tune properties and standard notation
CALIFORNIA GIRLS. AKA and see "Carmel Mahoney's, "O'Mahoney's." Irish, Reel. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The title for the tune is properly "Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire", composed for his wife by Bronx accordion player Martin Mulhaire in the 1950's. "Brereton's" is the name the reel was recorded under by Cathal McConnell & Robin Morton, while "O'Mahoney's Fancy" is the name Sean Maguire gave it on his recording. It was originally in the key of 'C', although nowadays 'D' versions predominate.
The name California was given to the land on the Pacific coast of North America, supposedly by Cortez, who officially called it Santa Cruz. Cortez mistakenly thought the rather parched bit of real estate was an island (i.e. Baja California) and he and his men began to refer to it as California after a Spanish romance book about an island populated by women.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Taylor (Where's the Crack?), 1989; p. 8 (appears as "Californian Girl").
Recorded sources: Kells Records, Brendan Begley - "We Won't Go Home Till Morning."