Polkas please

[TC]

At a session this evening we went through a whole mess of polkas. I played along with about a half-dozen of them and realized I know the names of none. Thought you all could help me name some.
So, what's your favorite Polka ?

[MTGuru]

At a session this evening we went through a whole mess of polkas. I played along with about a half-dozen of them and realized I know the names of none. Thought you all could help me name some.

Sure. They're all called "Polka". Seriously.

[kenny]

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/9597

[chris_coreline]

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/9597

i am proud to be one of the 16 people WORLD-WIDE who know this tune.

[dsmootz]

i am proud to be one of the 16 people WORLD-WIDE who know this tune.

By that standard, 2,089 people know the Kesh. I figure nearly everone knows that one, and the ITM community is a wee bit bigger than two thousand-ish, right?

[chris_coreline]

i am proud to be one of the 16 people WORLD-WIDE who know this tune.

By that standard, 2,089 people know the Kesh. I figure nearly everone knows that one, and the ITM community is a wee bit bigger than two thousand-ish, right?

hush! dont spoil my moment in the spotlight!!

[FJohnSharp]

We play a nice little set of polkas:

Mickey Chewing Bubblegum (Bill Sullivan's)
Maids of Ardaugh
Finnish

[TC]

Thanks for the suggestions Kenny and FJohn. I will look those up.
I'm very new to session playing and maybe obsessing too much over the names of tunes.
Still getting used to names like: "That Hornpipe in A" and "The one we play after Cooley's".

Any others ?

[Cathy Wilde]

I thought they were all called Ballydesmond.

Some nice ones I've been playing lately are Captain Moonlight's Army, Tom Billy Murphy's and Johnny O'Leary's (presently in love with all things Johnny O'Leary) off the Mulcahy's new CD. Classics here are Gneive Guilla (sp?) (aka Godzilla), the Knocknaboul (aka Knockabout), the Top of Maol, the aforementioned spuriously-named clutch of Ballydesmonds, the Church Street Polka (Conal O Grada), and the perennial favorites, a lovely pair of Leitrim polkas called Up and Away and The Merry Girl. I've also been playing Mrs. Crowley's (at least that's what Bill Ochs called it last fall).

But truth be told, the only one I've assayed on the pipes is Mrs. Crowley's -- everything else I play on flute or whistle.

[buddhu]

[...]Mickey Chewing Bubblegum (Bill Sullivan's)[...]

One of my favourites. On fiddle the B part bounces nicely between strings.

[Jäger]

My favourite must be Dennis Murphy's. Memories of Ballymote comes close second.

[Ugi]

Still no polka out there that can beat good old John Ryan's

[NicoMoreno]

Still no polka out there that can beat good old John Ryan's

What, for cheesiness, bad taste and being badly played? I think just about any polka would be better than that one. Seriously, that may be the one polka that *everybody* plays, but it's also the one that everybody plays wrong.

The main thing to keep in mind when learning polkas is to get the right lift or pulse. Play them like Leitrim polkas or Kerry polkas, but don't play them like bad marches.

My preference is Kerry polkas, so I would suggest learning from Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford, Johnny O'Leary and Padraig O'Keefe, or more modernly from Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh, Brendan Begly, Jackie Daly, Seamus Creagh, and Matt Cranitch (to name my main sources). The first Ballydesmond (that everyone seems to forget!) is a great one, as are the Green Cottage polkas and any of Din Tarrant's.

[Cathy Wilde]

My preference is Kerry polkas, so I would suggest learning from Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford, Johnny O'Leary and Padraig O'Keefe, or more modernly from Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh, Brendan Begly, Jackie Daly, Seamus Creagh, and Matt Cranitch (to name my main sources). The first Ballydesmond (that everyone seems to forget!) is a great one, as are the Green Cottage polkas and any of Din Tarrant's.

I knew there was a reason I liked you.

Conal O'Grada turns in some awesome polkas on "Cnoc Bui," too, and Mick Mulcahy's solo album from the 80s has some lovely ones as well. (And yeah, I mean that -- polkas can indeed be lovely!)

[kenny]

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/4422