Booze and Bands

I happened across a really interesting radio show over the Christmas holidays. The virtuoso Celtic flautist, Chris Norman, hosted an hour-long documentary on CBC radio (“The Pure Drop”) – all devoted to the deep (and evidently real) connection of alcohol and Celtic music-making. He travelled all over the place and interviewed loads of people who unanimously supported Chris’s contention that booze and jigs, to put it crassly, went beyond stereotype. Continue reading Booze and Bands…

Tam O’Shanter Suite

To this day the “Tam O’Shanter Suite” has been one of my most interesting and challenging projects.  The recording here, from “Shambolica!” and tarted up visually for youtube, was the first track I tackled when going about making the Shambolica! project happen.  The whole “Tam O’Shanter” experience (meaning my efforts to create this track) tapped in to over 30 musicians and two different studios.  In the end there were nine of us – and the track all recorded in one studio.  Continue reading Tam O’Shanter Suite…

Sign the “Save Strathclyde Police Pipe Band” Petition

From the land of brilliant thinkers like David Hume and Adam Smith we’re shocked yet again with another indescribably dunderheaded idea – and this within a week of last week’s judge-banning mess.  The narrow, inward-looking leadership of Strathclyde Police service, as most now know, have decided it makes jolly good sense for the fine people of Glasgow – and Scotland - to rip the heart out of one of the country’s greatest living cultural assets, the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band. Continue reading Sign the “Save Strathclyde Police Pipe Band” Petition…

Free for Pipe Band Members

I had a walk through Glasgow’s excellent Museum of Transport last week.  In one area of the museum, that displaying 1950s train stuff, there was an intriguing notice; I include it here: Continue reading Free for Pipe Band Members…

5 Tunes I Wish I Had Written

We all have our favourite tunes, pieces of music that we love to play or love to hear – or both. Pipe tunes are such short little things – pibroch aside – it’s hard to keep a Favourite Tune List brief. My own FTL changes a fair bit, and often. I think it depends on what I’m listening to, what’s on the radio, what I’m practicing, what the band is playing, my mood; I think all of these variables are among the drivers of my FTL.
Continue reading 5 Tunes I Wish I Had Written…

Hum Bug Pipers

Of the thousands of tunes made for playing on the Great Highland Bagpipe, there’s hardly a Christmas tune in the lot. Pipers write tunes for their pals, mums, dads, bands, teachers, to commemorate “in” jokes and happenings, birthdays, retirements, battles won and lost and places. But not much for Christmas – or Hogmanay or New Years for that matter!
Continue reading Hum Bug Pipers…

Money for Nothing

One of the most remarkable changes in the piping world in the last twenty years is the commercialization of the game.  When I say “commercialize” I mean just that, “1. To apply methods of business for profit.  2. a. To do, exploit, or make chiefly for financial gain or, b. To sacrifice the quality of for profit.”  

I suggest to you piping commercialization has grown above the natural levels associated with population growth. 
Continue reading Money for Nothing…

Precious Practice Pads

A huge number of us are  stricken with the chronic challenge of trying to find a suitable place to practice the big pipes.   If a single chanter can reach 122 decibels and a pneumatic drill can reach 104 decibels, well, then, we all  know we need some fairly sound-tight space to rehearse our tunes of glory.  Hell, we didn’t need to know about the drill statistic; it’s simple, we need space to play our pipes.  Period.
Continue reading Precious Practice Pads…

When Pipers Die

I’m just in the door from Scott MacAulay’s memorial, held this afternoon in Hamilton, Ontario.   A standing room only crowd with lots of music: bagpipes, smallpipes and Gaelic song, and lots of heartfelt memory.  It has been over two months since Scott’s death and, still, emotion was raw.  It was great to see so many old friends and aquaintances.  Scott would’ve been hugely proud of main organizers Kenny Eller, Donnie Forgan, Sue McCarroll and Bob MacCrimmon. “God love ’em, ” he’d say, I’m sure.
Continue reading When Pipers Die…

A Cape Breton Love Story

My friend, Thea (Gillis) Campbell, sent this to me this morning; as they say, I “LMAO”. I’m thinking you might like this:
Continue reading A Cape Breton Love Story…