Annotation:Johnny Cronin's Reel
X:1 T: Johnny Cronin's Q: 350 R: reel Z:Transcribed by Bill Black [1] M: 4/4 L: 1/8 K: G EF | G2 FG EGDE | GFGA Bcdg | eB B2 edBA | GBAG EGDE | G2 FG EGDE | GFGA Bcdg | eB B2 dBAF | GBAF G2 :| Ac | Bdd^c d2 d=c | Bd d2 efgd | Bd d2 dBGB | cABG FGAc | Bdd^c d2 d=c | Bd d2 efga | bgaf gedB | cBAG FG :| Ac | BGGF G2 DG | BG G2 Bdgd | BG G2 GBAB | cABG FGAc | BGGF G2 DG | BG G2 Bdga | bgaf gedB | cBAG FG :|]
Johnny Cronin told New York musician Don Meade that he never really played the tune named in his honor, but Johnny's late brother Paddy learned many tunes from classic collections and perhaps picked up the two-part "Kitty O'Neill (4)" from Francis O'Neill's Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922). According to Connolly, he and O'Brien learned that two-part tune from Chicago fiddler Johnny McGreevey, who called it after Johnny Cronin (somebody may have remembered the wrong Cronin). Connolly also told Meade that O'Brien had learned from his father Dinny a similar two-part tune with a different second part (evidentally a version of the reel published by Francis O'Neill as "The Avonmore"). So for the recording, Connolly and O'Brien combined the two tunes into one three-part reel, and honored Johnny Cronin in the title.
The late New York accordion player Jim Coogan related this story about Johnny Cronin:
I was with Denis - Jackie Riordan - Joe Mills and Frank Wearity (they are all gone now) one Sunday afternoon when in comes Johnny Cornin (rip) with a full load of booze taken on. Johnny, naturally, was broke and was trying to borrow money and was hard after Denis (knowing he would get it) who shouted down at him (Denis was a big man) in the lovely sing song Kerry accent: "Ooooo - who takes a fit of working everry six months - vants a five dollar bill from me? How do oo intend to pay me back?"
Another Cronin story Jim told goes:
Joe Burke told me in Milwaukee that when Johnny got his settlement from the injury he received while working construction (somewhere around 8 grand) he hired a cab for the day and took Joe up to Alexander's Department store and went in and got outfitted out - from underwear - shoes - socks pants shirt -jacket etc. - he put them on in the dressing room - pulled off the price tags off and went to the cashier and paid for what was on his back - then told cashier - "If ye know of some poor soul can use the clothes I left in the dressing - give them to him..."
They then went to all the Irish bars in the Bronx and John would leave money for everyone he owed in an envelope as he knew they would be frequenting - Joe said that after they were all done and John paid the cab he had less than $1,000 left - which probably lasted him about a week.
Joel Shimberg remembered this tale:
Danny Collins told me (years ago, so details may be a bit hazy) that a bunch of Chicago guys got a bit of the wet devil in them once and telegraphed Johnny Cronin that Paddy Cronin (who I think was visiting in Chicago at the time) had died and that the funeral would be in three days. He said that Johnny had returned from Boston and had told Danny "It was a long trip up there, and do you know, the son of a bitch wasn't even dead!"
