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Down in the Coal Mine
Traditional Irish (originally), Scottish, English; Air or Hornpipe: American, Canadian; Reel or Breakdown. A Mixolydian. Standard. AABB (most versions): AA'BB' (Moylan). 'Red Haired Boy' is the English translation of the Gaelic title "Giolla Rua".
ARTIST: from American Memory Collection;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: Bunting's 1840 A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland
RECORDING INFO RED HAIRED BOY: Austen, Seth. Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Finger Style Guitar, Kicking Mule KM 174, LP (1982), cut# 2. Bowers, Bryan. View from Home, Flying Fish FF-037, LP (1977), cut# 7. Bromberg, David; Band. Midnight on the Water, Columbia PC 33397, LP (1975), cut#A.02b .Brown, Sullivan & Company. Magnum Banjos, Sequatchie --, LP (197?), cut# 8 .Grossman, Stefan. Thunder on the Run, Kicking Mule KM 171, LP (1980), cut#A.04b (Redhaired Boy). Phipps, Bonnie. Autoharpin', Kicking Mule KM 228, LP (1982), cut# 5. Skylark. Favorites, Little Bird LB 1001, Cas (1990), cut#A.04 Stinnett, Cyril. Plain Old Time Fiddling, Stinnett SLP 1013, LP (197?), cut#B.06 (Gilroy) . Thomason, Ron. Mandolin and Other Stuff, Kanawha RT-3, LP (198?), cut#A.01a. Watson, Doc. Doc Watson's Favorites, Liberty LN-10201, LP (1983), cut#A.05a (Little Beggarman)
OTHER NAMES: "Geezer and The Guiser," "The Duck Chews Tobacco," "The First of May", "Gilderoy" (Ire.), "Giolla Rua" (Ire.), "Johnny Dhu," "The Little Beggarman" (Ire.), "The Little Beggar Boy," "An Maidrin Ruadh" (The Little Red Fox)," "The Old Soldier with a Wooden Leg" (W.Va.), "Old Soldier," "The Red Haired Lad," "The Red Headed/Haired Irishman" (Ky.), "Wooden Leg" (W.Va.);
SOURCES: J.P. Fraley (Rush, Ky.) [Phillips]; learned from fiddler Padraig O'Keeffe by accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Begin]. Begin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 27, pg. 40. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 81. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 69, pg. 44. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 132. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 300, pg. 173. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 356, pg. 173 (appears as "The Redhaired Lad"). O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 209. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1748, pg. 325. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 921, pg. 157. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994. pg. 196. Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 34. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 77. Columbia C 33397, Dave Bromberg Band - "Midnight on the Water" (1975). Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Northern Spy - "Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire" (1999).
NOTES: A US version of “Red Haired Boy.” Standard. AABB (most versions): AA'BB' (Moylan). 'Red Haired Boy' is the English translation of the Gaelic title "Giolla Rua" (or, Englished, "Gilderoy"), and is generally thought to commemorate a real-life rogue and bandit, however, Baring-Gould remarks that in Scotland the "Beggar" of the title is also identified with King James V.
Info about "Red Haired Boy" from Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc: The song was quite common under the Gaelic and the alternate title "The Little Beggarman" (or "The Beggarman," "The Beggar") throughout the British Isles. For example, it appears in Baring-Gould's 1895 London publication Garland of Country Song and in The Forsaken Lover's Garland, and in the original Scots in The Scots Musical Museum. A similarly titled song, "Beggar's Meal Poke's," was composed by James VI of Scotland (who in course became James the I of England), an ascription confused often with his ancestor James I, who was the reputed author of the verses of a song called "The Jolly Beggar." The tune is printed in Bunting's 1840 A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland as "An Maidrin Ruadh" (The Little Red Fox). The melody is one of the relatively few common to fiddlers throughout Scotland and Ireland, and was transferred nearly intact to the American fiddle tradition (both North and South) where it has been a favorite of bluegrass fiddlers in recent times.
Bandits, fairies and the tune all come together in an Irish tale, representing the capricious results of humans coming in contact with fairy-induced music. In the tale "The Red Haired Boy" was played somewhat under duress by uilleann piper Donnchadh Ó Sé from Lóthar, one of the best pipers in the parish of Priory. Donnchadh came by some of his music from contact with the supernatural, a not uncommon claim, but this time with a twist. It seems that he and his brother were gathering seaweed at Faill an Mhada Rua when they heard beautiful ethereal music nearby; Dónall stood by, afraid, but Donnchadh followed the sounds up the cliff and was able to commit them to memory. Returning home he strapped himself into his pipes and played the melody he heard, but afterwards was stuck down ill, becoming bedridden for three months before recuperating. Each time he played the tune the same would happen-he would suffer, for illness always followed. One day Donnchadh had the ill fortune to meet with a ruffian, who evidently knew of the circumstance and demanded at the point of a pistol that the piper play the fairy tune. Donnchadh obligingly reached for his pipes, and soon found that the brute was ignorant of the music and so was able to placate him with "An Giolla Rua" (Breathnach, The Man and His Music, 1997, pg. 38. (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Here are the 'Down in the Coal Mine' lyrics:
I am a jovial collier lad
As blithe as blithe can be
And let the times be good or bad
It's all the same to me
It's little of the world I know
And care less for its ways
For where the Dog Star never glows
It's there I spend my days
Down in the coal mine, underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging up the dusky diamonds all the seasons round
Deep down in the coalmine, underneath the ground
Me hands are horny, hard and black
Through working in the vein
And like the clothes upon me back
My speech is rough and plain
And if I stumble with my tongue
I've one excuse to say
It's not the collier's heart that's wrong
It's his head that goes astray
How little do the great ones care
Who sit at home secure
What hidden dangers collier's dare
What hardships they endure
The very fire they sit beside
To cheer themselves and wives
Mayhap was kindled up at cost
Of jovial miners lives
Then cheer up lads and make the most
Of every joy you can
And always make your Murphy's such
As best befits a man
For let the times be good or bad
We'll still be jovial souls
For where would Britain be
Without the lads who look for coals
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