Annotation:Dick Cosgrove's Reel

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DICK COSGROVE'S REEL. AKA and see "Drunken Tinker (The)," "Gillespie's Reel (2)." Irish, Reel. G Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The tune is sometimes called "Gillespie's", from the 1939 recording [1] made in New York by Hugh Gillespie (1906 - 1986, born in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal). Gillespie named several of his tunes for Irish music-loving hosts whose houses were always open to musicians to gather and play; hosts such as Con Crowley, Paddy Finley and Dick Cosgrove (according to Tony Engle and Tony Russell in liner notes of Topic 12TS364). The name Cosgrove in association with Gillespie also comes up in regard to a violin, once used by Michael Coleman. The following excerpt is from an article on Coleman in Treoir (No. 7, 1969, p. 12):

The four violins which Coleman used when he recorded for the Columbia Co. are now in possession of Messrs. James and John O'Beirne and Paul Ryan of New York, and the "Cosgrove" violin now in possession of Mr. Hugh Gillespie, Donegal, Ireland. Coleman's Decca recordings were made on the violins of Mr. Stanley Parker and on Hugh Gillespie's de Nicholas violin and on Coleman's own violin, now in possession of his niece, Mrs. McGovern of Sligo. This last violin and the "Cosgrove" violin are the only violins which Coleman's family accept as having belonged to Coleman. They reject all other claims.

Source for notated version: L. Donnelly [Mulvihill].

Printed sources: Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 157, p. 43.

Recorded sources: (78 RPM), Hugh Gillespie (1939). Topic 12TS364, "Hugh Gillespie: Classic Recordings of Irish Traditional Fiddle Music" (1978. Re-released as TSDL364.)

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