Key signature: Dmajor
Submitted on May 25th 2001 by Jeremy.
This tune has been added to 751 tunebooks.
Also known as Merry Blacksmith, Paddy On The Railroad, Sleigh Ride.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Merry Blacksmith, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|:AB|d2dA BAFA|ABdA BAFA|ABde fded|Beed egfe|
d3A BAFA-|ABdA BAFA-|ABde fdec|dBAF D2:|
|:fg|a2ag f2fe|d2dA BAFA-|ABde fded|Beed egfg|
abag fgfe|dcdA BAFA|ABde fdec|dBAF D2:|
This popular reel can be found in O'Neill's (number 728), and is a popular session tune. I like to play this one together with "The Mountain Road".
In this setting of the tune I've included a tie between the A's at the end of one bar and the A's at the beginning of the next, so it becomes one longer note instead of two separate shorter notes. If it's played this way, the tune has nice, almost American "swing" to it. Try this out, and if you don't like it, then just ignore the ties.
Apart from that, try rolling the D at the very start of the tune, or the A and F at the start of the second part.
# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy
We names our band after this Reel. It's one of my favorite tunes.
# Posted on March 21st 2004 by Max Becher
named, not names.
# Posted on March 21st 2004 by Max Becher
My "Wrong" Version
I finally learned this popular session tune by myself yesterday. Actually, I was trying to reconstruct the version I heard and played along with others in sessions from the memory, and hit upon the nice one on flute. It's interestingly different from any version available on the net. Here it is:
K:D
d3 A BAFB|A2 dA BAFB|ABde fded|Beed egfe|
d3 A BAFB|A2 dA BAFB|ABde fedB|1 AFEF D3 z:|2 AFEF D3 e||
faag ~f3 e|d2 fd efdB|ABde fded|Beed egfg|
~a3 g ~f3 e|d2 fd efdB|ABde fedB|1 AFEF D3 e:|2 AFEF D3 z||
I'm not sure whether it's a truly original version of mine or just the corruption of the local session version. I need to try playing it in the session.
# Posted on May 14th 2004 by slainte
I played this tune with others last night and found my version is different from what they play. I really love the version posted above, but it seems more sensible to learn the "correct" one.
I've just notice some phrases in my version come from the version of Boys of the Lough I learned in Co. Clare some months ago.
# Posted on May 19th 2004 by slainte
This works very, very good as a hornpipe.
# Posted on August 17th 2004 by sifudave54
It does work as a hornpipe. But it's such a lovely reel. You might have difficulty getting others to play it with you as a reel if they begin playing it as a hornpipe. I did.
# Posted on October 4th 2004 by windybaer
The Michael Coleman version of this is here:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/538
# Posted on November 22nd 2004 by Dow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-g3vFvcy8
# Posted on June 26th 2009 by awildman
The Merry Blacksmith
Here it is played by Liam O'Flynn and Paddy Glackin, the second tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RARC_oShpCI&feature=rec-fresh+div
# Posted on November 6th 2009 by conscientous objector