(Tunes for) Summertime

July 1, 2011 on 1:53 pm by Michael Grey | In Audio File, Music, Solo Piping | 2 Comments

Here’s a few tunes to help while away your day – a holiday if you live in Canada.

Here’s me playing my solo spot at the May 21, Toronto Police Pipe Band show at the el Mocambo club in Toronto.

The tunes are:

The very old Irish air “Samhradh, samhradh” (Summertime), and some jigs starting with “Dr Angus MacDonald’s Off to Skye”. I wrote this tune as a send-off to Dr A. as he and Emily and family left Cape Breton after a long stay and returned to Scotland – Skye, in fact. You can find it in my third book of music. I think this tune is a good solo competition tune. It’s been pretty friendly to me, anyway.

Donald MacLeod’s “Maid in the Glen”, a great tune from his “Book 3”, follows. My two-parter, “The North Shore Sisters”, from my fourth book and written for Ryan and Shannon MacDonald (from North Shore, Cape Breton) around about the time they played in Peel Regional Police Pipe Band when I was Pipe Major. George Grant’s superbly musical, “Marjorie Lowe” is next. You can find this tune in Seumas MacNeill’s first book of music. I play Reay Mackay’s neat little variation (or “tasty”, as Reay might say) on the repeat of the last part.

“The Bottler” closes out the set as Ian K MacDonald joins in for his bit. I made this tune the year I guested with the Lothian and Borders Police Pipe Band. It was named for a yet-to-be-named member who had the unfortunate habit of blootering-up almost every competition.

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So there you go.

Happy Canada Day!

M.