Comb Your Hair and Curl It/The Whinney Hills of Leitrim/A Fig for a Kiss – Song Download – Song Download

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Grey learned these three slip jigs in Cleveland, Ohio from flute player Tom Byrne (1920-2001) and fiddler Tom McCaffrey (1916-2006). Here Grey plays his own setting of “The Whinney Hills of Leitrim,” in the key of C instead of the usual key of D.

Starting in the mid-1950s Byrne and McCaffrey were pivotal members of the vibrant Cleveland Irish-American community, where they have taught, inspired and encouraged scores of young musicians. In 1974, while a student at the nearby Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Grey got to know them at Irish music sessions in the homes of various Irish immigrants who were members of the Cleveland Irish Musicians’ Club. “The Toms” welcomed Grey into their lives and their families, and so began lifelong friendships full of music and laughter.

Grey: tin whistle in D; Paddy: bodhrán