Five things - GHB folk bands

Everyone knows GHB. Normally just known as “bagpipes” or “pipes” they are a clear part of Scotland’s international brand, along with haggis, whisky, heather, golf at St Andrews and the Glorious Twelfth . The pipes are always played by a man in a kilt. This man, and it is always a man,  is either a “lone piper” or else he’s with a band, marching. Whatever he’s playing, be it a loch-side lament or a rousing march, it will be loud. Pipes are so loud that they aren’t a natural choice for playing in bands alongside other instruments. They also play in an odd key. I suppose that was a driving factor behind the smallpipe revival. Despite their volume there are, and continue to be, folk bands that use GHB as a regular part of their line-up.

The Battlefield Band. This band has been going since 1969 and like grandfather's axe contains none of its original parts. I am not even sure if the line up has always included a piper, but several pipers have passed through during the course of 30 albums.  The albums I have (Ok - so they belong to the fan) generally stick to trad pipe stuff. The current piper, Mike Katz, has a ZZ Top beard, which must once have been wacky but nowadays makes him look like a hipster. He also plays smallpipes, made by the Monkey's maker.

The Tannahill Weavers describe themselves rather immodestly on their website as "Scotland's Finest Traditional Band". A year older than the Battlefield they released their first album in 1976. They once had a certain Mr MacInnes in their line up. I've seen them live once and I (Ok, Ok - the fan) have one of their CDs. 

Deaf Shepherd. Fabulous name for a great band. Once described as one of the most popular bands in Scotland they appear to have vanished leaving only three albums to show they were ever here. Fiddle and songs as well as pipes and I particularly enjoy their rendition of The Corncrake.

Braebach. Not only pipes, but two sets of pipes! The current line up pairs Calum MacCrimmon (who can be heard on the Seudan CD) with James Duncan MacKenzie, who can also be heard on his eponymous CD. They have old pipe tunes, new pipe tunes, some great interpretations of pibroch, prove that the fiddle and the pipes are a match made in heaven, and also throw in some songs of various sorts. Sometimes the pipes are full on, sometimes they are set in the mix with other things, sometimes just passing through a track, but always wonderful.

Ossian. Now, I love Ossian. They are - or were - one of the best Scottish folk bands ever. I love their choice of tunes, their settings, their arrangements. If I could only hear five CDs ever again there would definitely be an Ossian CD (or maybe two or three) on the list. But I don't think of them as being a band with pipes. There are the later CDs where they have the good sense to enlist Mr MacInnes. Before that there was a flirtation with Irish pipes. I do love Irish pipes, but they were not created for playing GHB tunes. When Braebach come out on to stage it's with, as it were, all pipes blazing. They are out and proud as pipers. Ossian are somehow embarrassed, reticent, bashful: their pipes are right down in the mix. You're never going to be blown out of of your seat by full on pipes from Ossian. 

You can find GHB on Light on a Distant Shore (my least favourite Ossian CD), Dove Across the Water (my other least favourite...) and on Borders.

The case of the missing Strathspey

As I ran through my various tunes on the learning pile last week it occurred to me that Horsburgh Castle sounds rather nice when followed by Miss Girdle. Miss G is coming on nicely. Horsburgh is OK. The A part is there, I have a tendency to run straight to the second B part, and there are one or two bars where timing is not quite right. With a bit of work though hopefully I can make a set of them. Horsburgh is a march and Miss G a reel, so I'm two thirds of the way to the classic MSR.

I managed a set at a session this weekend: Magersfontein and Flett. The other intended pairing, Dargai and Bee, I flunked because I was nervous. I sat next to a fiddle player who is in a band and confessed to similar nerves, and I found it comforting to have her there. She pointed out that the expectations are your own rather than anyone else's, which is true, but... The ex-band's fiddle player said he thought I was very confident (which shows how wrong people can be!!)

I thought I'd manage four days of playing last week. I did Thursday, which wasn't on my plan, then flunked Saturday. Still, what with the session and two lots of warming up on Sunday I played a fair bit. Didn't play for long today but put the A chanter on when I put the pipes away.

At some stage I must mention my new favourite CD: Inner Sound from the Whistlebinkies. It's on permanent loop in the car at the moment and I've abandoned the radio for it.

Five things - duos

As Mies van der Rohe once noted, less is more. Sometimes (perhaps more often than we realise) we need very little. Sometimes just two things together is perfect: a glass of port and a slice of Christmas cake, a sofa and a good book, bread and cheese. It's not that the sofa and the book wouldn't benefit from the addition of a cup of tea, or maybe a glass of wine, or that a slick of butter and a pickled onion don't enhance bread and cheese, but in themselves, just as two, these things are good together.

Similarly in music. I am happy to hear the full works, I love an orchestra, but Bach cello suites played by a single cello and nothing else...perfection. I love a full trad band. But sometimes I want simplicity, just two things. These are the CDs I go to.

Doubling. Shouty Records. 2013.
This is a little bit of a cheat because although it's just Anna and Mairearad they manage to pack in a range of instruments. Mairearad plays box, pipes and piano, while Anna provides guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and, according to the CD blurb, percussion and hand clap/thigh slaps. If you see them live Anna also provides the jokes.

Dermot Byrne and Florian Blanke. 2012.
Dermot and Florian play mainly one box and one harp, although a piano, voice, and some guest musicians sneak in from time to time. A mix of French and Irish.

Single Track Road Trip. Living Tradition. 2010.
I saw this pair at Folk at the Oak. Martin plays both guitar and banjo, Carol plays fiddle. It's just the two of them playing pipe tunes and others, new and old, all in the best Scottish tradition, and you can't beat it.

Deadly Buzz. Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. Irish Music Net. 2011.
Kitty Lie Over. Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. ACM. 2003.
Irish pipes, this time, with hardanger fiddle. They throw in various pipes, a flute, a standard fiddle. Deadly Buzz is probably my favourite Irish music CD.

Welcome Here Again. Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill.Compass. 2008.
Or possibly this one is my favourite. Traditional jigs and reels taken slow and easy on fiddle accompanied very sensitively indeed by guitar. Despite my usual reservations about backing/rhythm instruments/strummy string things there is no point at all on this CD where I feel that someone ought to ask the guitarist to remove himself from the room.

And, just for the record, there is no way to improve on a glass of port and a slice of Christmas cake, except with another piece of cake and maybe just the teeniest drop more port. Cheers.

These dry bones

(Tate Gallery http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bowler-the-doubt-can-these-dry-bones-live-n03592)

I suddenly felt better today. Not in that still-not-well-but-less-unwell-than-I-was way, but a real feeling well sort of way. I went to work, came home, popped in to the village, cooked dinner, wiped round the kitchen, stacked the dishwasher, wrote a letter...thought about piping. Got my pipes out.

I had a horrible worry that I would have forgotten how to play, forgotten all my tunes. So I decided I'd just try 10 minutes while dinner was in the oven, assuming it would go badly, but at least I'd be back in the saddle.

So I tried and..it was fine! It was good. It felt great to be playing again. I remembered some tunes, I played with dots, I played until I really did need to get dinner out of the oven. The Dragon appeared in its full glory, slow, with a swing, and a flurry of simple grace notes in the second part. Miss Girdle did her thing.

I really have to get back in to a regular habit. Hopeless to say daily during December with Xmas intervening and we'll be away for some of it, staying with folk who really don't care for pipes. Let's go for 4 times a week, starting this week, and taking Monday as the start. So three more times to play between now and Sunday. It's a start.

Once and future...

A couple of Christmases ago someone gave me a nice mug. A mug for pipers! Let's not quibble about the fact that it has been drawn by some one who has clearly never seen a piper - note the bag apparently perching on the shoulder, and the missing drone.  It's my special piper's mug, for pipers (i.e. me).

Sometimes the sight of this mug in the cupboard is a rebuke. "Ha! Call yourself a piper? When did you last have your pipes out?!" Sometimes it's a joyful reminder "I am a piper!". Of late, things being as they have been for far too long at work, it's been a sad reminder of past glories, the good old days, when I was a piper.

Just to add insult to injury I've been sick this past fortnight. I don't think I've ever been so sick in my life. I've had to resort to the doctor, and submit to the taking of pills. I've thought vaguely about music, about blog posts, and I've unravelled a bit of knitting, but mostly I've read light novels and stared into space.

I've only listened to a very little music, mostly restful things: Duncan Chisholm and so on. Yesterday I listened to Doubling, forgetting (!) that there were any pipes on it, and when the pipes came they took me by surprise and made me cry. I'm too exhausted to play, and I can't even pick up my chanter, thanks to the laryngitis. It all seems so sad: this is my month of milestones, of my birthday and Morag's, of my beginnings as a piper. I've not played for so long

So now I am looking anew at my piper's mug. "One day", it seems to say, "you will be a piper again". Let's hope.