"Live from North Hero" CD

Review from The LBPS Journal

 

The 19 tracks on this album, lasting about 70 minutes in total, were recorded live at the North Hero gatherings in Vermont during the 2001, 2002, and 2003 meets by Ray Wall of Living Traditional Recordings © and is published by the Pipers' Gathering Inc. which was formed in 1999 to "promote the music and playing of bagpipes in all their forms through workshops, education, social and cultural endeavours". It is a non-profit organization and contributions from US citizens are tax deductible (!) The annual gatherings commenced in 1984 and are for "alternative bagpipers" and attract over 100 players annually. The several types represented in this collection include Border pipes (4 tracks - 2 by Moebius) Scottish smallpipes (4 tracks), Uillean pipes (8 tracks) and Northumbrian smallpipes. (3 tracks) It is a fact that about half the music is played on Uillean pipes and the other half is fairly evenly divided amongst the rest. Iain MacInnes and Fin More playing Hamish Moore's Border and smallpipes ably represent the LBPS. The tunes Fin Moore plays are "Back of the Change House" and "Moving Cloud." Iain plays "The Ewe with Crookit Horn," "Sweet Molly", "Macphee's Reel," Caber Feidh," "Malcolm Curry" by Willie Gray; "Inver Lasses" by Neil Gow; "Buntata's Sgadan" by Allan MacDonald and on a later track "Murdo Mackenzie of Tooidon" by Robert Macleod; "The Glasgow Gaelic Club" by William Dunn and "Duncan McGillivray Chief Steward" by James McGillivray. Matt Seattle gives a soulful rendering of his tune "Lindisfarn" on LBPS Chairman Nigel Richard's Border pipes. Matt told me the tune was by popular request as he wanted to do something different. He is backed by Nigel on cittern and very nice and fresh it was too.

Given that the recordings were all made live at concerts in a tent the quality is uniformly of a very high order. One track that stays in my mind is "Ian McHarg (Scottish smallpipes in A) and Aron Garceau (guitar). Ian plays an upbeat "Paddy's Leather Breeches" plus two of his own compositions - "Mike and the Antipyper" and "Haggis the Cat." Picking on other favourite tracks is difficult and would only further reveal this reviewers prejudices. I tended to hom in on the non-Uillean piping tracks. If you want to hear outstanding Northumbrian piping there are some great tracks by Dick Hensold, Ian Lawther and Andy May. I thought a better balance might have been achieved if outher "alternative" pipes had been included such as Cornish, French and Spanish examples, however it has all come from North Hero past concerts so perhaps they were not represented. I look forward to future recordings from this venue.

I have no hesitation in recommending this enjoyable CD to LBPS members but caution those who are not aficionados of Irish piping, not that I am being critical of the quality of what is on offer, only the quantity. Comprehensive notes accompany this CD and include details of makers so that it is a shop window for those wishing to invest in new pipes and want to hear how they sound.

Check out their web site at www.pipersgathering.org for details of the 2004 meet and a wealth of information, pictures of past gatherings and useful links.

The CD is available in the UK from:
Ian Clabburn
6 Greyfriars Road
Daventry Northants NN11 4Rs
Price L11.00 or from:

The Pipers Gathering CD
c/o Steve Bliven
49 Plains Field Drive
South Dartmouth, USA
Checks or money orders only for $19.44

Jim Buchanan

 

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