HOW MANY VERSIONS OF THE LONESOME BOATMAN

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:49 am

Hi all,

just found a great clip of a band playing the Lonesome Boatman on youtube, - http://youtube.com/watch?v=6kl-BiYhCCw

I have a few notated versions, they start simmilar to this one but on listening to the youtube version he seems to play high B and A notes
my supposedly original versions only have first octave A and B notes,
there is also 2 versions in the low whistle book, which are slightly different, I'm not great at playing by ear, but am having a good go at
it, so if any of you pro play by ear guys or gals can have a listen at youtube and see if its just me thinking he's playing upper octave A's
and B's i'd be greatfull, I know the majority of the boatman is in the upper octave so any help would be appreciated.

sponge

if the youtube page dos'nt work just go to yuotube and type in lonesome boatman

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:31 am

Sounds like a Cowboy Country version. That guitar during the intro was absolutely annoying.

Loren

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:43 am

Ugh, what a terrible clip. It felt like high noon at the O.K. corral, plus outrageous finger vibrato!

bradhurley · Post by **bradhurley** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:11 pm

Actually it's not all that different from the original Finbar Furey version, including the guitar.

okewhistle · Post by **okewhistle** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:13 pm

I quite liked it: but I agree about the guitar.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:15 pm

sponge wrote:I have a few notated versions, they start simmilar to this one but on listening to the youtube version he seems to play high B and A notes my supposedly original versions only have first octave A and B notes...

I think he's playing that on a whistle tuned to A instead of D, so that he
can get the G# without half-holing. Which means that what might look
to you like a high B is actually a high F#.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:21 pm

bradhurley wrote:Actually it's not all that different from the original Finbar Furey version, including the guitar.

Very true.

It is one of those tunes that the punters love but the musicians have to suffer through.
Back in my Dublin days I had to play it at every single gig..drove me round the bend. As soon as a whistle was spotted on the stage the requests for the Lonesome Boatman started to pile up. Ripping into Junior Crehans kept me sane...

Slan,
D.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:41 pm

Cool. I like it. Gotta love an Overton.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:43 pm

dubhlinn wrote: Ripping into Junior Crehans kept me sane...

Poor fellows. I had thought there was only one of them. Incidentally, how did you evade arrest?

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:46 pm

Bloomfield wrote:
dubhlinn wrote: Ripping into Junior Crehans kept me sane...
Poor fellows. I had thought there was only one of them. Incidentally, how did you evade arrest?

Nobody ever used their real name in those days

Slan,
D.

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:03 am

Hi all,

thanks for the info, it did'nt cross my mind that he could have been playing the key of A, I have a recording of Finbars that is very close
to this version, including the vibrato and the guitar, its only missing the crashing waves and seagulls.

Thanks all

sponge

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:54 am

Well, the version on thesession.org has the key signature in D,
but all the G's are sharp, so I don't know why the poster didn't just
go ahead and put it in A. It's easier to get the G#'s with an A whistle,
but it will largely be in the second octave, for whatever that's worth.

EDIT: Oops, the chords look like it's more like Bm. I guess the G#'s
are accidentals... Does that make it E Dorian? Somebody help me
out, here.

bradhurley · Post by **bradhurley** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 11:04 am

fearfaoin wrote:Well, the version on thesession.org has the key signature in D,
but all the G's are sharp, so I don't know why the poster didn't just
go ahead and put it in A..

Criminey! I've said it before and I'll say it again; thesession.org should be the LAST place anyone goes to find a tune transcription! I've only seen one or two good ones out of the dozens I've checked out.

The problem, if I remember correctly, is that Finbar Furey recorded this originally on a low whistle of his own making which was in an indeterminate key...somewhere in the neighbourhood of F if I'm hearing it correctly. I don't know where this transcription came from, but if you listen to Finbar's playing (and if you watch the YouTube clip posted above), you'll see that in fact the first note of this tune is played as a second-octave B (no matter what key your whistle is in...I'm not talking about the actual note but the fingering for the note, assuming you're playing a D whistle). You have to half-hole the high C-natural that follows. I dunno what key it's in natively, but if you start up there on the B the rest will follow. Those accidentals in the second part are high C-sharps...again, relatively speaking of course. The actual note depends on whether you're playing a D whistle, a C whistle, a G whistle, or whatever, but you finger it as if it's a high C sharp on a D whistle.

You could of course transpose it lower, which is what the person who posted the transcription on thesession.org did; that'll make it easier on the ears if you're playing a D whistle, but I think it sounds more "lonesome" up high myself....best to play it on a C or lower whistle though to avoid breaking eardrums.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 11:27 am

bradhurley wrote:Criminey! I've said it before and I'll say it again; thesession.org should be the LAST place anyone goes to find a tune transcription! I've only seen one or two good ones out of the dozens I've checked out.

I don't disagree, but sponge didn't specify which transcription he was
going with, and the session version jived with the video in question, so
that's what I went with... (I haven't heard the Finbar version, so I had
to go by the video sponge provided.)

From sponge's other thread, I believe this is the actual transcription
in question, in E Dorian by my guess:

http://unitedireland.tripod.com/id236.html

bradhurley · Post by **bradhurley** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 11:36 am

I wasn't yelling at you, I was yelling at thesession.org

That other transcription is equally problematic, at least for me (especially because I'm not a good enough sight reader to make much sense of it). But unless there's another recording of Finbar playing it (which is quite probable actually given that it's his greatest hit), I can't buy the claim that he was "playing a low D whistle."

Have a listen to Finbar and Eddie Furey playing The Lonesome Boatman, the original recording of it (sorry for the poor sound quality).

http://homepage.mac.com/bhurley/.Public/boatman.mp3

I'm pretty sure that whistle was pitched around A (not F as I stated above).

So fearfaoin your guess was right...it's just that the transcription shouldn't be written out with the actual notes he played..it should be written as if you were using the same fingering on a D whistle. That's why it's so hard to play it as written on a D whistle.