Monday, January 31, 2011

Kitty O'Neil's Champion Jig


Some info from youtube on this and another version of the song
This interesting piece, being unusual with 7 lines of non-repeated themes, comes from Ryan's Mammoth Collection. In it we hear lots of the "Banjo Licks" common in the tutors. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the last one part of the "Dick Van Dyke" TV show from the 60's?
Love your playing of this tune. I suspect it’s about as historically accurate as any I’ve heard, considering your source and the instrument you play. Well done!
You’re probably already be aware of this, but the tune survives in the current repertoire of Irish traditional musicians under the name of Kitty O'Shea’s. Two notable recorded sources are by Tommy Peoples and Kevin Burke.
Kitty O'Neil, the tune's namesake, was a popular New York-based dancer and singer of the 1870s and '80s.
One such melody is “Kitty O'Neil's Champion Jig,” an elaborate, seven-part fiddler's showpiece that has been revived in recent years by Irish traditional musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite the tune's Irish-sounding name and its adoption into the contemporary Irish repertoire, “Kitty O'Neil's Champion” is actually a hardy survivor from 19th-century American minstrelsy and variety theater.
Kitty O'Neil, the tune's namesake, was a popular New York-based dancer and singer of the 1870s and '80s. The revival of Kitty’s “Champion Jig” hasn't done much to revive her reputation, however, because the tune has become widely known as “Kitty O'Shea,” the title under which it mistakenly appeared on a recording by Donegal fiddle great Tommy Peoples, who started playing the tune in concerts during the 1970s and included it on his 1982 LP The Iron Man.

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