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The Maid Behind the Bar

History

The earliest firm record of this reel is an untitled entry in the manuscript collection of County Leitrim fiddler and piper Stephen Grier, compiled around 1883. The same melody appears in print that year in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, published in Boston under the titles “Indy’s Favorite” and “Judy’s Reel”. Claims that the tune circulated a century or more earlier turn up in some modern write-ups, but they are not backed by a printed or manuscript source, so they should be treated as unconfirmed.

No composer is credited in any collection. The tune has accumulated an unusually long list of alternative titles, including “The Barmaid”, “The Bartender”, “Little Judy”, “Ratification” and “Maid Behind the Counter”. Francis O’Neill printed it as “Maid of Castlebar” in Music of Ireland (1903), a title that may be a misreading of “Maid Behind the Bar”, or the reverse.

Its documented history runs largely through Irish-American publishing and recording rather than through any single Irish locality. Uilleann piper Patsy Touhey recorded it on cylinder between 1901 and 1919, paired with the jig “Humors of Glynn”. Accordion and banjo duo Edward Herborn and James Wheeler recorded it for Columbia in 1916, a session arranged by Ellen O’Byrne, whose door-to-door sales in Irish neighbourhoods in Boston helped establish that there was a commercial market for Irish dance music on record. Further 78 rpm recordings followed from accordion players James Murphy (1920) and John “Dutch” Kimmel, who titled his version “The Bartender”.

As a reel, the tune’s original function was for social and step dancing rather than for listening. By the time it reached commercial recording, though, it was already being packaged for the Irish diaspora audience in the United States as much as for dancers at home. Sligo fiddler James Morrison recorded it in New York in 1923, closing a medley that also included “Bonnie Kate” and “Miss Lyons’ Fancy”, though the record label listed the set as “Haymaker”. That Morrison recording, alongside Tom Ennis’s piping, is generally credited with fixing the tune in the modern session repertoire.

The tune’s second strain shares material with the French-Canadian reel known as “Ronfleuse Gobeil” (“Snoring Mrs. Gobeil”), recorded by Jos Bouchard in 1938, where it turns up as the third part. It has since appeared in numerous printed collections, including Harding’s Original Collection (1897, as “Ratification”), Cranitch’s Irish Fiddle Book (1996) and Brody’s Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983), and on recordings by Matt Molloy, Frankie Gavin and others through the later twentieth century, cementing its place as one of the most commonly played reels at Irish sessions today.

A separate G major reel, “Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel”, is sometimes catalogued as “Maid Behind the Bar [2]” because of the near-identical title. It is a related but distinct tune, and the two are worth learning apart so they are not confused when called at a session.

Musical Characteristics

• Melodic character: bright, diatonic movement in D major with no accidentals or modal colouring.
• Rhythmic feel: driving quaver-based reel rhythm with a strong forward pulse.
• Phrasing: built in clear four-bar units, arranged as two repeated eight-bar strains.
• Structure: standard 32-bar reel form, AABB.
• Musical personality: straightforward and dance-forward rather than showy or ornamented by design.
• Technical difficulty: moderate; the tune is easy to pick up by ear but the B part reaches higher into the range.
• Notable features: an opening bar built on a rising, string-crossing-style figure that several similarly structured reels also share, which is part of why the tune is frequently confused with its relatives.

Mode

• Mode: Ionian (major).
• Scale: D E F# G A B C# D.
• Modal flavour: none. The tune sits squarely in the major scale with no Mixolydian or Dorian shading, which is part of what gives it its open, bright quality.
• Alternative keys: almost always played in D in sessions; Matt Cranitch’s printed setting is in C major, useful for B/C system button accordion players.

Harmony

Accompaniment stays close to the D–A–G–Bm chord family throughout, matching the tune’s plain major tonality. Guitarists in DADGAD often let a D drone ring under the A part rather than moving the bass line much. A common variation is to swap in Bm for G at phrase turns, giving the accompaniment a touch more movement without disturbing the melody’s simplicity.

Interpretation Notes

• Tempo: usually taken at a standard brisk reel tempo, though several experienced session players deliberately hold it back rather than racing it.
• Articulation: a firm attack on the first note of each bar helps the opening figure read clearly.
• Ornaments: short cuts and single strikes generally suit it better than long rolls, which can blur if the tempo is pushed.
• Swing: flute and whistle players often add a little more lilt to the quavers than fiddlers, who tend to play it fairly straight.
• Phrasing: keep the four-bar units distinct; don’t let the repeated string-crossing figures run together.
• Dynamics: session playing of this tune is more about maintaining drive than shaping light and shade.
• Regional traditions: strongly associated with Sligo style through Morrison’s recording, but equally at home in Clare and Leitrim playing.
• Common mistakes: rushing the tempo to show off speed, glossing over the higher notes in the B part rather than practising them slowly, and mixing this tune up with “Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel” or “Green Mountain”.

Flute Approach

• Breathing: the four-bar phrase ends give natural places to breathe; avoid snatching a breath mid-phrase.
• Phrasing: tongue the first note of each bar firmly, then let the following notes flow with lighter tonguing or slurs.
• Ornamentation: favour cuts and single strikes over long rolls at session tempo, where rolls are more likely to smear.
• Tone: the melody sits mostly in the flute’s strongest lower octave, so a full, open tone is achievable without forcing.
• Finger challenges: the main technical hurdle is reaching the higher notes in the B part cleanly at speed; worth isolating and practising slowly before bringing it up to tempo.
• Musical expression: since the melody itself is plain, interest comes from small variation between the repeats of the AABB form rather than from dynamic contrast.

Guitar / Accompaniment

Keep the backing simple and let the melody lead. A steady quaver-based strum or chop pattern reinforces the reel’s drive without competing with it. Root-and-fifth movement on D and A covers most of the tune, with brief moves to G and Bm at phrase turns.

Many guitarists in DADGAD favour a sustained D drone under the A part, which suits the tune’s open major colour. Fingerpicked backing is less common at reel tempo but can work well if the tune is taken at a more relaxed pace.

Accompanists should avoid stacking in extra passing chords, which works against the tune’s plain character, and should be careful not to chop so hard that quieter melody instruments such as flute or concertina are drowned out.

Session Notes

• Popularity: one of the most widely known reels in the Irish session repertoire.
• Common pairings: frequently set with “Cooley’s Reel”; also heard paired with “Flowers of Edinburgh” and “Sheehan’s Reel”.
• Suitable sets: its forward momentum makes it a good tune to close a set on.
• Usual tempo: moderate to brisk, though many experienced players deliberately hold it back rather than pushing for speed.
• Regional differences: Sligo-style playing, following Morrison, tends towards clean, driven bowing; the earlier piping-style recordings by Touhey and Ennis sit at a gentler pace.
• Etiquette: because the title is so close to “Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel” and “Green Mountain”, it is worth checking which tune is meant before calling it, so two different reels don’t collide mid-session.

Similar Tunes

• Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel – a distinct G major reel, frequently confused with this one purely on title.
• Green Mountain – listed by some sources as an alternative title for this reel, though many session musicians treat it as a separate, closely related tune.
• Cooley’s Reel – commonly played straight after this tune as a set.
• The Tinker’s Daughter – shares whole bars of melodic material.
• La Ronfleuse Gobeil (Snoring Mrs. Gobeil) – a French-Canadian reel that borrows this tune’s second strain as its own third part.
• The Silver Spear – structurally close, and often mentioned alongside it in comparisons of related reels.

References

• The Traditional Tune Archive (tunearch.org): “Maid Behind the Bar (1) (The)” and “Maid Behind the Bar (2) (The)”.
• Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883).
• Stephen Grier music manuscript collection, Book 2, c. 1883 (Irish Traditional Music Archive).
• O’Neill, Francis. Music of Ireland (1903).
• Harding, Frank. Harding’s Original Collection (1897).
• Cranitch, Matt. The Irish Fiddle Book (1996).
• Brody, David. The Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983).
• thesession.org: “The Maid Behind the Bar”.

Personal Notes

This is a good tune to hand to someone fairly new to sessions: it’s diatonic, unmodal, and easy to follow by ear. The catch is the B part, where the melody reaches higher than beginners expect, and that’s usually what trips people up rather than the A part.

It’s worth learning to tell this reel apart from “Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel” and “Green Mountain” early on, rather than assuming they’re all the same tune because of the overlapping titles. Starting a shade under full reel speed and only building up once the higher notes in the B part are clean tends to serve better than trying to match session tempo from the first play-through.