TOW#46: The Banks of Esk

[nigelgatherer]

The Banks of Esk



This is a nice wee tune which I found in Aird’s Collection Vol.5 (1801). I have transposed it from the key of A dorian to E dorian to avoid a high C note. Dedicated to JAJ.

• Standard Notation and Chords
• Standard Notation with Mandolin Tablature
• MP3 of me playing The Banks of Esk on Mandolin
  

[Jack Campin]

It's a version of a tune from 100 years earlier - "Catherine Ogie". (In countless variant spellings, up to "Katrin Oggy" and the like). Lots of variants and may have been the original for "Johnny Cope" (and perhaps "The Boyne Water"/"Parcel of Rogues"). There were words to the "Banks of Esk" version which I can't see too many people trying to sing today.

The most elaborate version I know is William Marshall's "Mr Shearer of Buchromb".

[Sean Cannon]

i have been ordered to learn this by my missus who loves your playing on the mp3 sound file , i did say it will be a few years until i get it anyway near as good as you

[John Kelly]

Just giving this one a try on the tenor banjo, Nigel. Has the feel of a nice 2/4 pipe march with a good lift to it.
Here is the link to my Soundcloud page with the tune played on banjo and acoustic guitar.

The Banks of Esk

[Tosh Marshall]

Here is my effort, apologies for the colourful shirt!!!!! Love the banjo version John.
http://youtu.be/uO9xYPdXVVM

[nigelgatherer]

Good to hear these tracks, guys - thanks! Tosh - do you have to be so loud? (Not the music - that shirt!!!!!)

[Tosh Marshall]

Sorry Nigel, I will tone down a bit for the next one, I promise!!!!!!

[John Kelly]

Nice offering, Tosh. Plenty of tone and colour and a great deal of texture. And the tune was quite good too!

[Eric Renshaw]

(20-07-2012 08:55 PM)John Kelly Wrote:  Just giving this one a try on the tenor banjo, Nigel. Has the feel of a nice 2/4 pipe march with a good lift to it.
Here is the link to my Soundcloud page with the tune played on banjo and acoustic guitar.

The Banks of Esk

I hope it's OK to give repeat post from another thread, but it's possible not everyone has seen the earlier one.

Those of you who follow Nigel’s “Tune of the Week” will doubtless have been listening to John Kelly’s superb multi-track recordings in which he plays several instruments, as in the above Soundcloud rendition. Although I have tried this myself (much more simply by using mando 1 and mando 2 duets) I have found it extremely difficult to achieve decent results, not only because of my mando playing but also because I employ very basic recording equipment, viz: H2 Zoom, Audacity, headphones and a click-track. In an earlier post John briefly described the equipment and techniques that he uses and very kindly offered to drive across from the far West in order to share them with us. I mentioned this at a recent Kirkliston session and there was certainly an expression of interest, abeit just from four folk at the moment. The idea is if that we could get enough people wishing to hear how John achieves such notable success, then provided the Kirky host, Martin McQueen, gets the thumbs up from the bar we’d run a brief demo from say 8.00-9.00 with the usual session following on straightaway in its Monday usual slot from 9.00-11.00ish. Please let me know if you would be interested in coming along, and if there are enough of us to run a small gathering then John, Martin and I can sort out likely dates. Thanks.

Cheers,
Eric

[Graham]

anyone know of a tune by a similar name played as a slow air ?