Australian waters, jig

In September 1943 Séamus Ennis made his initial visits to Frank Cassidy. From the outset he  was very highly impressed with Frank Cassidy’s fiddle playing and noted in his diary on 17.9.43 that ‘if he were to play the fiddle from now until the end of the week, I would not put a foot outside the kitchen’. This jig, which Séamus Ennis didn’t have a title for, is known in Donegal as ‘Australian Waters’ and is associated with the playing of Jimmy Lyons (1903-1977), a contemporary of Frank Cassidy and his cousin, Teileann fiddle player, Con Cassidy. Jimmy Lyons was known as a sweet fiddle player and learned much of his music from the lilting of his father John, who was also a great source of tunes for Frank Cassidy.