DESCRIPTION:
I have loved this tune "The Southwind" for many years but for some reason never got around to playing it. It seems to me to be another beautiful Celtic sea song. Generally it is considered to be "traditional" as regards its origin. Donal O'Sullivan's wonderful book, "Songs of the Irish" states that "South Wind was written in the 1700s by "Freckled Donal MacNamara" in homesickness for his home in County Mayo. So that would make it Irish? Some claim it sounds like an O'Carolan composition but the Fiddler's Companion, notes that the tune is listed by both O'Neill and O'Sullivan, but neither attributes it to O'Carolan. In addition to "Southwind" the tune is also known as "An Ghaoth Aneas", "The Southern Breeze" and "The Wind from the South". To me the tune (also the song because there are words) seems more likely to be Scottish in origin but that is just my opinion and it is truly not known for certain.

I thought the tune would work well on the deeper, more mellow sounding mandola so I gave it a go. But of course it involves fingering quite different from the mandolin and frankly it did not turn out as well as I had hoped. Some of the nice double stops you can slide into the mandolin or fiddle are not as handy on the mandola in the key of G.

But I posted it anyway -- live and learn. I am playing along with a beautiful fiddle and guitar recording performed by Joe and Adele Green of Ireland (please watch their great YouTube channel: dulahanirl).

Played on a 2006 Eastman MDA815 mandola fitted with D'Addario J76 phosphor-bronze strings and a Wegen TF-100 pick