Library

The Kesh

Traditional

Style
Celtic
Tradition
Irish
Form
Jig
Key
G
Level
2
Played on
Fiddle

In the public domain. Source

Music

Learn the melody first. Each step adds to the one before it.

90bpm

Click any note to start from there

History

Kesh is a village in County Fermanagh, near Lough Erne. The jig was printed in George Petrie's collection in the 1850s as "Tear the Callies," and Michael Coleman recorded it as "Kerrigan's Jig." The name "The Kesh" took over after the Bothy Band recorded it in 1975.

Its first recording was made in 1916 by accordion player Edward Herborn and banjo player James Wheeler, as "The Rambler Jig." Ellen O'Byrne, who ran a record shop in New York, talked Columbia into the session by promising to buy hundreds of copies up front. She sold them door to door in Irish neighborhoods, and the disc's success opened the door for Irish dance music on records in America.

Read more on the Traditional Tune Archive