A 2008 Copy of a Patsy Brown Chanter by Brad Angus For Sale

[sean an piobaire]

Thanks Kevin for Your Great Info, that's the Man in the lower most Right Hand corner with the Practice set.
Fr. Quigley said that this man Crowley had the Practice set before it was given to Him, with the two Chanters.
Thanks to "IRISH PIPER" for the stories about Gene Frain's Bagpipe dealings. Greed over Old Sets of Pipes used to be the way of it, for many people. The Influx of all the New Sets of Irish Pipes means that only a few People care about these
Time-Travel Objects, as I like to call them.
So I only saw Gene once a year, when I was in Boston for Computer Science Corporation meetings, 1992-1998.
Sometimes I had a Rental Car, other times I took a Cab, and one time Paddy Keenan and I when to
Gene's upstairs apartment in Watertown in Paddy's BMW sedan. These "Snapshot" once a year afternoons kind of blend together, in my mind, except for the Afternoon with Paddy Keenan which got Gene all excited, and he recorded Paddy on his Reel-to-Reel 2 track Tape Machine. That was 1997....oh man, those "Go-Go' nineteen nineties !!!
I do remember that Gene was the Piano Player on a number of Copley Records, and that he said his Father Owen was a Flute Player from Co. Mayo......
This is some of what I remember about Gene, as I had contacted him by phone in 1973 for my Uilleann Pipers
mailing list that I put out in 1974, from information given to me by the Famous West Coast Piper, My Mentor and Friend,
Dennis Brooks, who was then living in Oakland, Calif.
So where did the Taylor set come from as Gene told me a story that he had the Brown set first and then the Taylor set came to him afterwards ? Not that all this matters that much, but if You're "In-the-Know" IRISHPIPER, Please continue....
The next question is for "MR.GUMBY": Is that really Matt Damon in Your Photo ? If not, what is His Name as it should be Captioned on it, don't You think ?
This is some thread ! SF

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I opened the picture in another tab, and the filename includes "Emmett Gill." He's a Londoner who lives in Galway now, good piper, made a CD under the NPU aegis. Has 2 Quinn sets as well, D and C. Nice as always that the pipes wound up with someone who'll play them. Emmett's a fan of the old time Irish music; he and another fellow have issued three CDs of "Old Time Irish Music," old discs, including a few sides of Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band, which had Dan Moroney and Owen Frain playing the odd bagpipe.

I quite like the Shamrock Band sides, they fairly exuded fun. You can hear more of their stuff at the Comhaltas Archives, I appended titles to all the sides (lots of stuff there doesn't have titles, just "Reels" etc). On some of these cuts you can hear the pipes more clearly than on sides which have been reissued. Dan Moroney was mentioned in an article printed in some 50s jazz rag, article was "Unusual Men of the Double Reed," and this was quoted extensively in that P Brown article in An Piobarie. I think Dan says in that article that "Taylor was the only pipemaker in America who made pipes that had tone. I have the last set he made," and I'd heard that it was that set which Owen and then Gene wound up with. 'Course may have these sets mixed up. Next someone will say they belonged to Patsy Touhey...

[RLines]

As requested by Sean, here are some photos of my recently acquired Patsy Brown chanter, along with the antique set of drones and regs I bought from Sean last year. Sean and some others are of the opinion that the old drones and regs are to likely be Brown's work. But perhaps Kevin's hunch is correct and they are by the New York Crowley brothers? Whatever the case, they are a great looking and great playing set.

The chanter is not marked, but is one of two Patsy Brown chanters discovered in 2003 along with a Willie Rowesome set of pipes, which was much discussed on this board at the time. This cache was eventually acquired by Jim McGuire, who had it all restored by Brad Angus (who also restored these drones and regs BTW). I am indebted to another member of the Chiff board, who was willing to part with this lovely chanter so that I could could complete this set.

Rick

[sean an piobaire]

Thank You Very Much for the Photos of Your Set, Rick !
I have to say it's one of the Lightest Sets of Pipes I've ever had the chance to play !
A little History about the "Body" of this Set of Pipes.....
In 1973, I played for the Santa Rosa California Highland Games, at the behest of the San Francisco
Caledonian Society, where I was "The Roving Minstrel" with my Northumbrian Small Pipes, and a
Irish Set on loan, of Moss Kennedy's made in 1959 and in A=452 hertz.
Two Highland Pipers came forward to tell me that they also had Irish Pipes.
One Piper was John Rosenburger (RIP) of San Diego, and the other Gentleman was
Neil Serkland (RIP), of Alviso, California (near San Jose).
Since Neil was very close to where I was living in Monterey, I made a visit to him to see his Pipes.
They had been given to him by someone in the area, but in all the years since 1973,
Neil never revealed the name of this Pipe donor.
This Set consisted of the following Parts: the Mainstock (& Cup), the Chanter Top (with a stop key)
the Drones, and the 3 Regulators.
I tried to buy this from Neil, but was refused. I did put my J.E. Brennan Chanter in Neil's Chanter Top
and it was a perfect fit, which brought us to a friendly stand-off..... I, not wanting to sell Neil my Chanter
(in case I came across some other Pipes of my own) and Neil not wanting to let go of his "Pipe-Body".
Years and Years later, Neil asked me who he could send this Body of Pipes to,
in order to make it a complete Set.....with a Bag, Bellows, Blowpipe, & Chanter etc.
I told him to send it to Brad Angus, because I admire Brad's work.
This Neil did and he enjoyed the result.
Neil passed away in the Spring of 2010, and I was tasked to sell the Set by Neil's relatives.
It was posted on Pat D'Arcy's site and Mr. Lines was the Piper who stepped forward, to help it
on it's passage through Time & Space....the old Gaelic concept was that things were never "YOURS"
but "AT YOU" ("is Agam"). A different idea about "belonging", to which I subscribe.
Rick did not want the Brad Angus Chanter, so I reserved a small amount of Cash back, and had Brad
make the Chanter Top, so now, my fellow Pipers you have enough background to this story, me thinks !
Thank All of You Pipers for reading this Thread and all the Contributions to it's content !
It there's anymore to add please don't be shy !
Sean Folsom

[ausdag]

up there
in "O" CANADA !

... where it's so cold, we put little tiny fur coats on our reeds in winter ...

Some say that those little coats for reeds that PJ refers to were actually very popular in Paul Revere's day. Word has it, when he placed an order for some, he rode ahead of the postman excitedly shouting, 'The reed coats are coming!'

The are some, however, who contend that it wasn't reed coats at all, but that he may have ordered a full set of pipes, in stages, because he was heard to have rode ahead of the postman crying, 'The regulators are coming!'

[Ted]

[Driftwood]

Snap, Rick! (Well almost but not quite).

Here is the link to photos of my set:-
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=6bfb1486 ... C230%21134

The bodies are the same except for the bass slide. Mine is a replacement except for the ivory puck. I'm wondering if the ebony puck on Rick's is an original. The chanters are different of course. Mine has the long wood key blocks instead of ribbon keys. The Fnat key is missing. Mine has only one bit of ivory and the stop key is a different shape. My back d hole is a bit unusual (I think):- quite big and is an oval shape.

This is the same set that Sean saw in Ireland many years ago being played by Finbar Furey. I would be interested to find out more about the NY Crowleys if anyone has got any info.

[RLines]

Hi Driftwood.

Thanks for sharing. Yes your set is nearly identical to mine. Very cool.

Interesting that this now makes three nearly identical sets - yours, mine and Kevin's old set, which he says is now in possession of a piper in Houston.

I'm not sure about the bass drone puck on my set, and whether it is original. Perhaps Sean knows?

Rick

[RLines]

To add a bit more detail to this thread, here are a few photos of another of this 'family' of sets. This is the one that formerly belonged to Kevin, which he mentioned earlier in this thread. It is now owned by Chiff member pudinka, who emailed me these photos today and asked me to post them.

The set is very similar to those owned by myself and by Driftwood, although this particular set has ivory mounts on the regs. As with my set, this one was also restored by Brad Angus, who I am told made a new bass drone and replaced the sliding part of the bari drone, as well as the chanter.

Rick

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Great stuff, all. Wonderful to see these sets of pipes; now, Driftwood's chanter really looks like it belongs with its set. Note how the popping valve ferrule has no lines turned in the metal, how the bits of the mechanism are a bit chunkier than on the chanters Rick and I have. The keys are a bit too skinny for the body, and have brass springs, while our chanters have nickel silver. If the same man made them all why not use the same metal? All of this makes me think these sets aren't P Brown. Wish we had a pic or two of bona fide Brown sets; but like I said, from what I've heard they're a bit finer made than these, with complex regulator keys/bodies, etc.

Thanks for posting those pics of my old set, guys. Was about to start fishing out any old pics I took. Brad also made the tuning pins for the regs, out of phony ivory. The original pins were just like the ones on your sets, little pyramids. Bass drone was missing. Nice drones; regs, while loud, did show some care in the holes, which had oval shapes with rounded edges instead of just the drill bit through the wood. Top of the bass reg was "broom handle" wood though, kinda crude. I had Angus make some ebony pieces for that. Played thousands of tunes on those pipes. They were nice and light, too.

Rosenberger had a musette de cour too, I was told. Solid ivory? Antique Irish pipes are a rare enough avis, where the feck did you find one of those fancy cornemuses in the 1950s or whenever?

Everything I know about Crowley brothers is via Harry Bradshaw, and I imagine he picked up his info from old timers in NYC, who are likely gone now. My theory about them is kind of process of elimination; I've seen sets built by Brennan, who also used the one piece regulator keys, and they're, let's say, distinctively crude in a way different than these pipes. Everyone else copying the Taylors built the complex reg keys - Brown, Hennelly, Hutton, Anderson, White. Haven't seen a Green set. Yes, there were pipemakers in old time America named Brown, White, Green. Hat tip to Ted for pointing that out to me years ago. Colorful lot. Haven't seen any Carney sets, either, just a very fancy chanter. Dave Quinn may well have taken a look at work from all of these pipemakers.

NPU source is down at the moment, might try and post some pics of pipers with these Crowley(?) pipes later. Crowley's Reels were written for one of these guys, Master Crowley's were named on the record for the other.

[Driftwood]

The keys are a bit too skinny for the body, and have brass springs, while our chanters have nickel silver.

Yes there are quite a few little brass bits on this set:- all the key springs and pins, the drone switch and the chanter inlet tube which may have been originally nickle plated. The broken bass drone slide that came with the set was also brass as I recall.

[sean an piobaire]

This is all very interesting !
As for the non-GHB Bagpipes Pipe Major John Rosenburger
had when I saw him in San Diego, in 1993:
1) The nicest McFadden set (by Frank McFadden's Father in Belfast)
I ever saw, with the bent-over ears on the Regulator Keys
(instead of separate metal shoulder blades to hold the keys in place).
These Ribbon keys were serrated around the edges, by way of decoration.
2) A 1950s Moss Kennedy "D" set (Montenotte Park, Cork City) just like the one I had on loan.
3) A Cornemuse de Berry ( This can also be called a "Musette du Centre")
Now Kevin..This came with an interesting story, as John was part of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy.
As a Piper, he asked his French Hosts if they had any local Bagpipes he could see, so they
looked in an attic and came back with a Berrichone Bagpipe and gave it to him as "Une Cadeau".
John was expecting to see a Breton Pipe, but it was from the South of France instead.
4) One of the nicest Taylor Double Chanters I have ever seen....
I asked to buy it but was gently refused. On the way out John gave me one of the nicest Pakistani
GHB Chanters that he had ,bought en masse for the Pipe Band
(they were all made to his specs and they all were Beautiful Chanters).
I later put this Chanter with a very Nice Pakistani set of Drones, etc.
and gave that set of Pipes away to my private Music student, Erin Johnson, much to her delight.

I think we might perhaps, be looking at one McFadden set here, but I don't know now, as I don't
have a photo to hand of Dan Sullivan's McFadden set, which was bought by Larry____ in Oregon.
Then Larry passed it on to Brian Vallely in Armagh, as the Pipers Club is bringing home as many
of the Historic McFadden and O'Mealey sets as they can find, in order to put these Sets in the hands
of young Ulster Pipers.
I'm Sorry to "Muddy the Waters" but it's all part of trying to identify these old sets of Irish Pipes,
without the previous generations of Pipers and Pipe Makers around to advise us.
Sean Folsom

[rorybbellows]

I think we might perhaps, be looking at one McFadden set here, but I don't know now, as I don't
have a photo to hand of Dan Sullivan's McFadden set, which was bought by Larry____ in Oregon.
Then Larry passed it on to Brian Vallely in Armagh, as the Pipers Club is bringing home as many
of the Historic McFadden and O'Mealey sets as they can find, in order to put these Sets in the hands
of young Ulster Pipers.

Which happened to be the very first set of pipes pictured in the "pictures of your pipes" thread but unfortunatly the photos are gone.

RORY

[Hans-Joerg]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/70 ... a38c7.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/dsc1496j.jpg/

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Ah, Byron Boddy is a Portland player of the Scottish instrument who also has a Britton full set, he made lots of reeds for me when I was starting and was a Rosenberger student; can see how he wouldn't know precisely which type of French pipe he was looking at.

Now where'd that double chanter wind up!

Thanks for the pic, Hans-Joerg. Are those Larry _____'s pipes? Why are we referring to him as ______, anyway? Sure he's a bit off the grid. What did he call himself here...used to post a lot. I remember those pipes when Gail Gibbard owned them for a while, she lives in Portland as well and plays all of the British Isles bagpipes.

Went down to Kells in Portland on 3/17/1997 to hear a friend's band play, guy I'm sitting next to asks if it's pipes in the long box I have. Turned out to be Larry. Quite a coincidence. Nice guy all around.

As promised, here's the photos from Ceol na hÉireann:





















Don't know why some of these pics are a bit screwy looking - will fix later, and add comments.