Annotation:Thady Casey's
X:1 T:Thady Casey’s M:4/4 L:1/8 R:reel Z:Liam Hart K:Em |B2BA Bded|BdAc BE ~E2|BAGA (3Bcd ef|1gfed Bded:|2gfed Bdef|| |gfge dB ~B2|dBeB (3Bcd ef|g2 ga bgaf|1gfed (3Bcd ef:|2gfed (3Bcd ed||
THADY CASEY'S. AKA - "Thady Casey's Fancy" (Rogha Thaidhg Uí Chathasaigh). AKA and see "All Ireland," "Burren (The)," "Crosses of Annagh (3) (The)," "James Keane's," "Star of Kilkenny (The)," "West Clare Reel (2) (The)." Irish, Reel. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). Thady Casey is best remembered as one of West Clare’s best dancers and dancing masters, although he also played the fiddle. Barry Taylor, in his article on Clare fiddler Junior Crehan (Musical Traditions, No. 10, Spring 1992), records Crehan as remembering:
There was a wedding at Crosses of Annagh [a noted local music pub in past years, about two miles from Junior's house] and Thady Casey was there, and Thady had played for a good few sets, and he was back to the supper and the lads wished me to play for a set. I said that I had no fiddle, so the man of the house asked Thady if he would give me the fiddle to play for a set. "He can play for twenty, if he likes," he says, so I played for the set and Thady came over and he stood at the door listening away: "Who learned you", he says. "Why sure, no one, Thady, I'm only making a bit of a noise," I said. "You weren't too bad at all, come up to the house and I'll straighten you!"
Up until then Crehan had been a self-taught fiddler, but thereafter received tutelage from Thady Casey and his cousin Scully Casey. Sean McCusker plays a version of this tune (also recorded by Laurence Nugent on his album “The Windy Gap”) that has a half-measure missing in the second part.
