I just learned a tune off of the Flute Geezer website (click on this text for those unannointed) but don’t know the name.
It’s from the “unknown player” section and is the first of the 3 jigs, the 2nd and 3rd being “Hag with the Money” and “Hag at the Churn” respectively.
Is the first jig another “hag” tune?
Cheers,
Aaron
It’s either:
Jerry’s Beaver Hat
or
The Returned Yank.
I always get the titles of those two tunes mixed up because I’ve long played them together as a set, but it’s one or t’other.
The Returned Yank is it – I just checked.
I checked JC’s ABC Tunefinder and one match returned as “Jerry’s Beaver Hat (The Returned Yank).” So you’re not the only one to use both names.
Is the version played on the Flute Geezer’s site a common setting? What I learned by ear is quite different from either version I find on JC’s Tune Finder.
I’m no ABC expert but the A part starts:
dAF AGF, dAF AGF, ACnatE GFE, ACnatE GFE
DFA G-roll, AdC d(breath)e, fed CBA, GFE d (breath)
Cheers,
Aaron
The “geezer” version is pretty much the way I’ve heard it on the flute…it’s really a fiddle tune and it drops down below the range of the flute, so you have to jump the octave I play a C sharp where you put the natural, but otherwise the way you’ve written it is close to the way it’s usually played, barring a few places where you have first-octave notes (uppercase) where there should be second-octave notes (lowercase).
The notes I play are more like:
dAF AGF dAF AGF ACE GFE ACE GFE
DFA GAB AdCd2 efed CBA GFE D2
I seem to remember that it was Marcus Hernon who played that tune on the tape that the “geezer” MP3s were made from, though I’m not sure.
Jerry’s Beaver Hat is the one that starts out DFAd, and these two tunes are often played together. I believe Tony MacMahon and Noel Hill recorded them as a set, and Joe Cooley might have played them too.
(edited to fix the last few notes!)
The confusion between the two tunes must have proliferated the web because every return for “The Returned Yank” or the “The Yank’s Return” all come up as the same tune as “Jerry’s Beaver Hat,” often with both titles included.
The tune I keep finding goes:
DFA d2e fdB BAF ABA dAF EFE GFE
DFA d2e fdB BAF ABA dAF DED D2 (repeat)
dfa afd gbg faf dfa afd Cee eCA
dfa afd gbg faf BdB AFA DED D2 (repeat)
I’m sure this must be “Jerry’s Beaver Hat.” Are there other sources for “The Returned Yank”? We should notify these websites that have the tunes confused.
As for the small note differences, the guy on the Geezer tape could have not blown through the C so maybe that’s why it sounded natural instead of sharp to me. Or maybe he thought an accidental would be fun. He also plays "d"s at the end of the A part but "D"s at the end of the B parts so probably a variation of his own style or his region’s style.
Cheers,
Aaron
Well, I just listened again and he is indeed playing a C-sharp, but you’re right about the Ds, that’s just his personal choice.
I am 90 percent certain it is Marcus Hernon playing; it sounds like him and I’m pretty sure I remember him playing on that tape.
I actually learned “Jerry’s Beaver Hat” as “The Racoon Cap,” to confuse matters even further.
I have these jigs too. This tune, I have it as Matt Molloy’s
Jig. So its really “The Returned Yank”?
The other tune, Jerry Beave, DFA d2 was the first tune I ever learned!
Cheers, lesl
Hmm… both names are good. Matt Molloy was my first exposure to Irish flute so Matt Molloy’s Jig works. Also I’m the only American in my Canadian pipe band so The Returned Yank is good too.
I wonder what Matt Molloy calls it?
Cheers,
Aaron
I’m now finding lots of names for this tune…
Burke’s Jig
Lad O’Beirne’s Jig
Connie O’Connell’s Jig
Pete Kelly’s Jig (Pete Kelly possibly being the composer)
Charlie Mulvihill’s Jig (Charlie Mulvihill being source of manuscript)
and my favorite so far
The Silver Vale
Cheers,
Aaron
I noticed that the tune identified as “The Returned Yank” in Mel Bay’s 110 Tin Whistle Tunes is the same thing listed as “Jerry’s Beaver Hat” in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland. 
With some exceptions, most tunes entitled so-and-so’s jig, reel, etc.., are named that because the real name is missing, temporarily forgotten, or the source of argument or whatever, and the guy that plays it the most gets named as the source. I’ve been told that O’Neill made up a good number of the names for the tunes he listed, but he did that 100 years ago. So I’d still take his titles over a more recently published whistle anthology. In either case, if the tune’s been around that long (100 years or more), it’s not very likely it was named after Malloy, Mulhaire or any other more recent player.
Gordon
Do Mel Bay’s “Returned Yank” and O’Neill’s “Jerry’s Beaver Hat” both start DFA or does one start dAF?
Given the variety of names a tune can have in Irish music (I’ve run across this before in GHB too) I’m not surprised this tune has several people’s names attached to it given that in the tradition a person learned a tune from a person, not a book, and if they forget the name they usually remembered who they heard playing it.
Cheers,
Aaron
Both books show an almost identical tune. I barely understand ABC notation, but, if I understand correctly, both start DFA. O’Neill’s does have a pickup note first, which is another D.
I don’t know if these are the same tune from the Geezer tape (I haven’t taken the time to listen to it yet), but I had noticed previously that the same tune was listed with different names.
I hope this helps.
Griff
The tune on the geezer tape starts dAF. I thought I’d double check because if the tune was in O’Neill’s then the one claim to authorship I’ve seen wouldn’t really hold. But the tune in O’Neill’s is indeed a different tune.
Cheers,
Aaron