Southwind: A Song History
"Southwind" is an Irish air, known in Irish as "An Ghaoth Aneas" ("The South Wind") and in English also as "The Southern Breeze" or "The Wind from the South."[1][2] It is the melody of a Gaelic song whose words Donal O'Sullivan's Songs of the Irish (1960) attributes to Domhnall Meirgeach Mac Con Mara ("Freckled Donal Macnamara") of Irrul, County Mayo; O'Sullivan adds that little else is known about him.[2] Fiddler Junior Crehan (1908–1998) told a story linking the air to a phantom ship bearing the spirits of the Wild Geese, exiled Irishmen killed in battle, back to Ireland; it belongs to tradition rather than documented history.[2]
Achill Head, County Mayo, Ireland, photochrom print, Detroit Publishing Co., between about 1890 and 1900. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. A County Mayo coast; the print is not connected to the tune.
The tune has a long printed history. Edward Bunting included it as "O Southern Breeze" in his 1809 General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, and Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland prints it as "The Southern Breeze," No. 510.[2][3] The Fiddler's Companion classes it as an air in 3/4 or 6/8 time, or a waltz.[2] The Chieftains recorded it as "An Ghaoth Aneas" on The Chieftains 3, first released in 1971,[4] and later versions include the Armagh Pipers Club, Micho Russell, Joanie Madden and a second Chieftains recording on Water from the Well (2000).[1]
The tune has also found a place in general fiddle and waltz tunebooks such as Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) and Matthiesen's Waltz Book I (1992), and on recordings such as Jerry Jenkins's track on the Fox Hollow String Band Festival album and Michael & McCreesh's Dance, Like a Wave of the Sea (1978).[2] Mountain dulcimer players will find it in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam collection for DAD tuning.[5]
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