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Hello and welcome back!
I must hastily inform you, so as to prevent you from dismissing this as a tune you know, that this is not any of the several tunes of this name that are available for perusal online. This is a short, simple, and hopefully pleasant slipjig, very square in its structure. I enjoy it on the concertina - there are several options for how to manage the bellows on this tune, so you can customize your performance to balance the human and mechanical aerobics.
When I found that there were several tunes of the name and that I wasn't immediately certain of the meaning of it, I did some searching. Apparently, the Oxford English Dictionary website will not allow me to access their information on a two word phrase without a subscription, so I had to look elsewhere to find what some of you might already know - that Jack's Alive is a game!
The game is very simple - you set a stick into the heart of a fire until the tip is red hot, then take turns blowing on the end and pronouncing that "Jack's Alive" - meaning that the tip of the stick is still producing light. Eventually, the light grows faint, then can only be coaxed forth by the effort of the lungs, and then finally, when no light is left, Jack is dead, and a line is drawn on the face of the unlucky soul carrying Jack's remains.
I imagine that this is likely the namesake, not the rhyming slang for a five pound note, which is likely derived from the game, and probably not the 2017 sci-fi paperback available on Amazon.
If you find this, or even the past few tunes to be too short, fret not - a long one is next.
In this performance, all of the triplets involved two bellows movements, but there are easy ways to make it take one or zero. It's just what felt right this time.
I'll also note that while I enjoy Mixolydian, I've also tried playing this in Ionian - you might notice a few borrowed chords sneaking into my performance. For the sake of this project being a somewhat serious venture, I've stuck to Mixolydian, but know that both are possible and good.
I'll admit that in the past few weeks I've fallen behind a bit on making my way through the book, but as of today, I've clawed my way through another dozen and reached the 437th tune, and intend to keep moving at a good pace to ensure that I have enough good tunes to post.
I hope you enjoy the tune!