This tune was first published in 1903 in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies. O'Neill said he learned it in the 1870's in the San Joaquin Valley, California "from the whistling of a companion while herding a flock of 3,000 sheep on the plains at the foot of the Sierra Nevada range." The tune is similar to the hornpipe Off to California.
This reel is a Shetland adaptation of the Irish hornpipe King of the Faeries. It was recorded in the 1950's by Shetland fiddler John Scollay, with his brother Peter on guitar. Scollay is a Shetland name of Norse origin.
