Wind That Shakes the Barley

The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a traditional reel in D major, played across Irish, Scottish, Shetland, and North American traditions, with contested origins: Father Richard Henebry and Breandán Breathnach both considered it Scottish, while Samuel Bayard found almost no Scottish traditional forms and abundant Irish and Irish-American ones. It was in print by the early nineteenth century, appearing in Power’s Collection of Country Dances (Dublin, c. 1812) and the Patrick McGahon manuscript (County Louth, 1817), and later in the Athole and Skye collections and O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907). Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman recorded it for Decca in New York paired with “The Lady on the Island,” and the Chieftains recorded it on Claddagh paired with “The Reel with the Birl”; a 78 by Beaver Island, Michigan fiddler Patrick Bonner documents its Irish-American circulation. It shares its title with Robert Dwyer Joyce’s nineteenth-century ballad of the 1798 Rebellion, but the reel is a separate tune with no direct connection.