Green Fields Of America: A Song History

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"The Green Fields of America" is a reel, usually played in G, that the Traditional Tune Archive classes as both Irish and American, noting it in New England and southwestern Pennsylvania.[1] It has collected many other names, among them "Molly Brallaghan," "Judy Brallaghan" and "Charming Molly Brannigan."[1] The Traditional Tune Archive reports a setting very close to today's in the manuscript collection of the Long Island painter and fiddler William Sidney Mount, dated to about the 1840s.[1] Francis O'Neill printed it in The Music of Ireland (1903) as No. 1240 and in The Dance Music of Ireland (1907) as No. 513.[1][2]

Engraving of a crowd of emigrant families with bundles and baskets on a quay, with steamships in the harbor behind them

Emigrants leaving Queenstown for New York, wood engraving from Harper's Weekly, 1874. Shown for the emigration theme of the song of the same name; it has no connection to the reel.

An early recording is a Columbia medley made in New York on 11 March 1916 by the accordionist John J. Kimmel, who paired it with "Stack of Barley" and "Blackberry Blossoms," with Joe Linder at the piano.[3] He recorded the same three reels for Victor in sessions that August and October; the master take, from 30 October 1916, was issued as the "Stack of Barley Medley" on Victor 18193.[4] The fiddler Michael Coleman recorded it in 1927.[2]

The title is shared with an Irish emigration song (Roud 2290), sometimes sung as "The Green Fields of Canada," in which an emigrant says goodbye to Ireland and looks to America for an easier life; the Traditional Ballad Index gives its earliest date as 1810.[5] Paddy Tunney, Planxty and Paul Brady are among the singers who have recorded the song, while groups such as the O'Halloran Brothers have played a reel under the same name.[6] Samuel Bayard, as summarized by the Traditional Tune Archive, considered the reel an instrumental offshoot of an older song air, but the sources consulted here do not settle how closely the dance tune follows the emigration song's melody, so they are treated here as separate pieces.[1][6] Aaron O'Rourke includes the reel in Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1, a Fingers Of Steel book of 36 session jigs, reels and polkas for mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, with a short guide to session playing and to Irish ornamentation.[7]

Our book that contains the song "Green Fields Of America"

Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Greenfields of America (1)".
  2. irishtune.info: "Green Fields of America".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix 46492. Medley of reels / John J. Kimmel".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-18243. Stack of barley medley / John Kimmel".
  5. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Green Fields of America (I), The".
  6. Mainly Norfolk: "The Green Fields of Canada / The Green Fields of America".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1".
  8. Image: Emigrants leaving Queenstown for New York, wood engraving from Harper's Weekly, 1874. Library of Congress.

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