I did a search and found a thread titled, 'A Cup Of Tea', but I don't think it is the same reel. So here ya go! This traditional Irish reel is a lot of fun to play. There are so many variations out there. I invite you all to check them out! I also enjoyed busting out my Fender Bass VI to help out with the low end! I hope you enjoy this one! TABS/Standard Notation for THIS tune along with others are available!
And a lot of fun to listen to, Jason. Immaculate coordination of the four parts and some very sharp work with the triplets in the final go round.
Jubilant, uplifting performance Jason, with heartfelt emphasis.
Thank you very much!!
Nice ensemble playing, Jason!
That will certainly have us reeling around the dance floor, Jason.
I posted some revisited tune learning materials for this well-known, much-played 3-part reel today at my YouTube channel. Its interesting that this tune is known in both its "unfortunate" guise and in the guise which I've always known it, which makes no reference to its lack of good fortune. :-)
All versions played here are the tune I know as "Cup of Tea". In another, much older thread, I played it as a second tune after Mountain Road, maybe that's what caused the confusion (which would be the only unfortunate thing, then).
Not sure that there's any "confusion" (at least I'm not detecting any). The tune is well-known by both names, The Unfortunate Cup Of Tea and The Cup Of Tea. It was notated as The Unfortunate Cup Of Tea by Haverty in 1858 and later by Grier in 1883 as The Cup Of Tea. Seamus Ennis, fairly uniquely as far I can tell, called it The Cup Of Sweet Tea which is a euphemistic reference to tea with a shot of whiskey or poitín. The point I was making - perhaps rather poorly (although I've re-read my post above and it all seems pretty straightforward to me) - is that despite the fact that it has a number of aliases, in many years of playing in and being around sessions, I've never heard anyone use the unfortunate or sweet modifiers when referring to the tune. But then again as Will The Quill says, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...".
Aidan, I was referring to pluckingstring's post about different tunes. Beside the usual naming conundrum that's going on all the time, everywhere, of course.
I see... mea maxima culpa. (Or, in the context of this particular tune, mea maxima cuppa.) I tend to think of the multiplicity of names for a given tune as a feature and not a bug. And, of course, lots of us us have a tendency to generate new aliases for tunes as a giggle. Many of which are (at best) scurrilous and it would probably be unwise to put them in print in a public site where the innocent and impressionable, or those who don't understand dark session humour, might venture upon them...
Many had the same concerns about impressing the public and named their tunes in Gaeilge...
I am very partial to a cuppa, Aidan, even in my transatlantic exile and this one really hit the spot - nothing unfortunate about it. The naming thing is fascinating. I have been playing The Hag with the Money recently, which I think is great tune with a horrible title. The alternatives seem to either be in Gaelic, which I don't understand, or The Whore among the Nettles (or something), which is scarcely an improvement. I was considering unilaterally calling it something completely different.
Cailleach is often translated as "hag" (I agree with you that it's a horrible word, with all sorts of unwelcome, misogynistic and quasi-sinister connotations) but it can be translated into English as the less troublesome "old woman". (e.g. in some translations of Mise Eire, "an cailleach Beara" is often translated as "the old woman of Beare"). If the "h" word causes difficulty, there is a ready-made alternative. The song "Cailleach An Airgead" which is set to the jig is also known - probably just as often! - as "Sí Do Mhaimeo Í" (the first line in the song), which translates as "She's Your Granny". (The jig is also called, but - I would suggest - fairly uncommonly, "Mary Duggan's".) But you'd need to be wary. If you were, for example, to play the tune in a session among Irish players, you could find yourself in a situation like this. I'll be the protagonist... Player 1: That was a grand set. What would you call that last tune? I can't quite place it. I know the tune but I can't get the name. AC: "Mary Duggan's" Player 1: Nope. That's not it. (Turns to player 2) He says it's Mary Duggan's. Have you ever heard of it? Player 2: His eye! It's The Hag With The Money! (Other players nod agreement.) Player 1: Ah. That's it. (Turns to AC.) You made a grand job of The Hag With The Money there, fella.
I hereby declare my non-commitment to any political correctness debate with tune naming, because harmless words of the past are becoming time-bombs of the future. All the tunes with "Paddy" in them would have to be renamed, as would those names with people's names (for data protection reasons), just to mention two examples. We'd end up using either Captain O'Neill numbers or thesession.org URLs instead of names.
Aidan, I do see the problem. The point of a name is that it is a shared identifier that we can communicate with each other. I'll go with She's Your Granny, perhaps. I'm not sure if people would call it political correctness (or wokeness or whatever), Bertram, but I would never in real life refer to a person as a hag (or a crone, or bitch, or any other misogynistic and/or ageist term), so I am disinclined to do so even for this generic or fictitious person. (I wonder if the system will deal with those terms as it did with Aidan's badger.)
Nope ... the "system" allows misogyny but it's delicate in a Victorian manner about references to noisy emissions of flatus. Just like real-life, then.
If sweet tea is tea with whiskey in it, could the unfortunate cup of tea be the one that didn't get any? I enjoyed both versions, thank you.
Thanks... Aidan
Sounds great, Aidan!
Many thanks.
