The Boys of Bluehill

Francis O'Neill said Chicago's Irish musicians did not know this tune until he got it from George West, a gifted 17 year old fiddler who did not own a fiddle. West played on the fiddle of a man named O'Malley, taking over at house parties around midnight once O'Malley was too drunk to bow.

The tune may be older in America than in Ireland. It was printed as "The Two Sisters" in Knauff's Virginia Reels in 1839 and as "The Boys of Oak Hill" in Ryan's Mammoth Collection in 1883. American fiddlers usually play it as a reel, while Irish players treat it as a hornpipe and often pair it with "The Harvest Home."