Colm MacCárthaigh: Guitars

Notes about Margaret’s Waltz

I learned this beautiful waltz from Liam “Bal” Kennedy, who taught me how to play the fiddle when I was growing up. He pairs it with the great American tune “Midnight on the Water” and the lift into Margaret’s Waltz always felt like something special. We’ve played it many times together and it became one of my absolute favorites. I play it now often as a closing number, and it regularly gets couples spontaneously waltzing on makeshift dance floors. At parties and sessions at my house, we almost always finish with this tune too. Everyone plays it with a little character, from just two or three notes of their playing I could pick out my friend Christine, Suzanne, or Melanie’s versions. It’s such a wonderful canvas of a tune.

It’s a Scottish tune written by Englishman Pat Shaw, who is a renowned and was a prodigious tune writer. It’s been adopted into many traditions and I’ve played it in Irish, Scottish, Swedish, Cape Breton, Acadian and American sessions with no bother. It’s something else to play it with others, but here to finish the album it’s just me playing the tune on guitar, and accompanying myself, also on guitar. I hope you dance.