I’m looking for ‘The Stack of Rye’. I heard Lunasa play it in Boston and Kevin Crawford said it was one of four tunes Crehan composed known as ‘The Stacks’. I’d be interested to check out the other ‘stacks’ as well. I did start slogging through old postings, but there’s so much, so anyone who might have any info for me, if you’ve got the time, please drop me a reply!
Thanks ahead,
Aaron Welsh
Junior Crehan’s grandson, Kevin Crehan, did a great solo fiddle CD called An Bhabog sa Bhadog a year or so ago on which he plays many of Junior’s compositions. One of the sets on this CD is the Four Stacks. The Stack of Barley and the Stack of Wheat are traditional hornpipes that should be readily available from wherever you source your tunes, be it Internet or tunebook. Junior Crehan wrote the Stack of Oats and the Stack of Rye to go along with the two traditional Stacks.
I recommend you get the Kevin Crehan CD. It’s a brilliant piece of work altogether, and a great tribute to Junior and his music. Among other places, it’s available from Celtic Grooves Imports (http://go.to/celticgrooves). You could easily learn all four of the Stacks by ear off the CD.
Kevin Crehan’s CD is excellent and as there is no (repeat NO) accompaniment on the recordings you should be able to pick the tune easily.
Peter Laban is not a man to blow his own trumpet (he uses bellows for that!!) but he has done some very nice transcriptions of Crehan tunes among many others posted on the concertina.net site. At least one of the Stacks is on there if you want to get the tune before you get the CD.
Ken
Edited as my keyboard can’t spell.