So I find myself getting hooked on tunes that I love but that I have never heard in a session and only on maybe 1-2 albums. Sometimes I think this is a “waste of time” because one should work on getting a repertoire for playing with other people. Other times I think, screw it, this is supposed to be fun, and pick up the random tune anyway.
The current is off of a Jerry O’Sullivan CD. The tune is called “An Feirin” and it’s very bouncy, syncopated-like. THe one before that was “Soup of the day” off an Old Blind Dogs CD. That is a bizarre tune - the rhythm is reel-like but with only 6 eighth notes per measure rather than eight.
SO who is gonna compete with me for “most obscure tune” victory? THe rules are that the tune has to fall within the conventions of Irish trad music, at least formally. (Gee.. . . have I just opened a huge can of worms?)
Most obscure tune ever:
Monday, the Metal Waltz
by Aaron Christianson.
you need to learn this song.
I can also post the previously unreleased solo recorded for it, by Roger Sullavin of HC fame, if you like.
You know that you want to record a flute solo for it. still have all the framework lying around.
edit: it seems the last note has been cut off. It’s an E. Just hum an E right where the last beat should be, and you’ll get the idea.
Under what conceivable interpretation of these rules does “Soup of the Day” fit? (It’s not structured like an Irish tune, it’s written by a Scot, played by a Scots band, and it’s not remotely obscure.)
And I’m assuming personal compositions are not fair game. I’d be inclined to rule out modern compositions altogether as opening a huge and fairly uninteresting can of worms.
If “conventions of Irish trad music, at least formally” allows Irish-like tunes of possible non-Irish origin, then I can claim “Good Old Tune”, a single (ie Irish polka) collected from an old Newfoundland accordion player, and to the best of my knowledge released for the first time on a commercial recording last month. My guess is fewer than 50 people worldwide know how to play the tune.
Hmmm… I think the most obscure properly Irish tunes I play that I can think of at the moment are “Bea Maye’s” (never heard an Irish recording of it, only ever heard it started by the five of us in town who know it) and that one that goes B2GB EBGB|A2FA DAFA|B2GB EBGB… But I don’t think either of those is terribly obscure.