Courting the Sun Tunebook

These tunes represent 26 years of composing Irish music with some tunes dating all the way back to when I was a mere twelve years old.

Most of the tunes are composed for friends and family, one even for my old cat Max. The melodies are notated the same way you might find them in one of the grand collections like O’Neill’s, The James Goodman collection or Ceol Rince na hEireann - in other words with minimal ornamentation and virtually no bowings.

So much of traditional Irish music is personal. I wrote these melodies and now it’s your job to interpret them. Use the bowings (or tonguing if you’re a whistle player, or strumming, etc) that makes the most sense to you. The same goes for the ornaments.

The chords are more or less transcribed from the first time around I recorded them. In other words, there are some re-harmonizations on some tunes on the second or third pass, but I decided not to notate them. The chords notated are the most natural as I hear them.

I have spent most of my life playing and learning traditional Irish music and have always been fascinated by it’s composers: people like Charlie Lennon, Paddy O’Brien, Ed Reavy, Liz Carroll, Paddy Fahey, Josephine Keegan and hundreds of others. I humbly offer what I can to this list of giants and hope you enjoy playing the tunes. Thanks!