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"Farewell to Whiskey" is by Niel Gow (1727-1807). In Gaelic "Slan Le N-Uisge Beata".
This tune was composed in 1799, when the barley crop in Scotland failed, and was so poor that no barley was permitted to be used for distilling. In "The Beauties of Gow" (published Edinburgh, 1819), his son Nathaniel annotated the tune with: "This tune alludes to prohibiting the making of whisky in 1799. It is expressive of a Highlander's sorrow on being deprived of his favourite beverage." In many collections (beginning with the Gow family’s Fifth Collection, 1809) it is paired with Gow's "Welcome Whiskey Back Again". Another tune by Neil Gow in this collection is "Drunk At Night and Dry i'da Morning". It was printed in Gow's First Collection of Niel Gow's Reels (1784), Gow's Fifth Collection of Strathspey Reels (1809), O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903), Stewart-Robertson's The Athole Collection (1884) and Williamson's English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes (1976). I often play this in a medley with:
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