🎻 Pulling back the curtain on what fuels my polka obsession

Hi Reader!

You may know that I'm a fan of polkas.

There are seven on my last album alone, I include it in my blurb about this newsletter that we'll get along if you're a fan of Sliabh Luachra, and it's also the tune type I picked for my second time choosing the tune for the Irish Tune of the Week account over on Instagram this past Tuesday.

(Bodhran fans will get a kick out of my good friend Jim's post -- he's been threatening to do this for months!)

I don't know the exact moment where I really fell in love with polkas, and if I'm being honest I don't super love any other type of polka that isn't from Sliabh Luachra.

It could be from the Tuesday night sessions playing with Sliabh Luachra experts at the Blarney Castle Hotel and hearing how they add the lift and playfulness to the tunes.

It could have been from Niamh ní Charra's Tribute to Cuz Teahan album which is still one of my hands-down favorites (alongside a few other albums straight from the heart of Cork, Kerry and Limerick).

Or it could be playing them with button accordion players, guitarists and bodhran players like Jim who really get the groove.

Only after I was an established polka lover did I start to think about why I'm so drawn to them:

~ They're relatively easy to pick up by ear at a session, which makes them more accessible for all to play.

~ They have the ability bring the energy in the room from 0 to 100.

~ They're something different to play than jigs and reels.

Don't get me wrong, I love both jigs and reels. And I think that there can be too much of a good thing so I would only want to play hours of polkas in very rare occasions (one being trading polkas with Sean Sutor and Cailen Campbell until 4 in the morning at Swannanoa this summer -- there are just so many good ones)!

When I started to feel too predictable at sessions (got any polkas, Hannah?), I started to learn more slides.

Another friend loves Donegal music and so for every highland I learn of his, he's learning a polka.

Lately I've been playing more hop jigs and slip jigs, which I'll be sharing in The Tune Library for the last three months of the year.

I think what I really love is the variety!

Weekly Tune Library Update

First up on the new tunes list is a great hop jig called The Boys of Ballisodare, which should be up by Friday this week unless this week's cold decides to hang on for a bit longer... 🙈

For your viewing and listening pleasure this week...

I mentioned Niamh ní Charra's album above, and while it's difficult to find the Cuz Teahan album you can get a sense of her tune type variety in this combo set of a Barndance into two Polkas!

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For anyone who wants to go deeper down a well, there is an hour replay of a presentation she did at the Padraig O'Keeffe Festival in 2024 -- I know what I'm watching this weekend!

At the end of the day, what really fuels my polka obsession is playing with other people who enjoy playing polkas, and feeling the mood in the room lift.

You can get that with other tune types too, and I certainly do -- but nothing quite gets the toes tapping, the shoulder moving and the cheeky grins exchanged quite like a polka!

Happy playing!

~Hannah