CCMC Tune Swap November 3, 2007: Tell Her I Am

This three part jig (a tune swap first, I believe) is probably most well known through fiddler Michael Coleman's rendition recorded in 1927. (You can find an online version of Coleman's 1936 recording here). I first learned the tune from local flute player Asher Gray. "Tell Her I Am" has been recorded often, but two versions that stick out in my mind (other than Coleman's) is Martin Hayes' and Dennis Cahill's version on The Lonesome Touch and Shannon Heaton's flute setting from her and her husband Matt's duo album, Dearga. As for origins of the tune title, according to the Fiddler's Companion's entry: "Charlie Piggott, in his book Blooming Meadows (1998, written with Fintan Vallely), relates the story regarding a remark by the famous County Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman, then living in New York. Coleman was performing when a female admirer asked her companion to find out from the fiddler whether or not he was married. "Tell her I am," he replied." I tend to vary the melody quite a bit on this one, so if the recording isn't matching settings you find online, it's just me playing with the tune :)