Question about Casey Burns folk flute

[pancelticpiper]

Casey continues to improve his flutes, and I think he is currently making the best flutes of his career.

That statement really impressed me.

Because I met Casey at Lark Camp in the 1980s and his flutes were great then!

I played for some years a c1990 keyless Casey Burns flute made of highly flamed Mountain Mahogany which was simply terrific, so easy to fill, so powerful. I played in a band with a very loud piano accordion guy and that flute didn't come anywhere close to being downed out. I think the bore was based Pratten specs.

My c1860 London-made 8-key cocus Pratten-spec flute, which was my primary flute for decades, I played with a c1990 Casey Burns headjoint, which was far superior to the original.

To be making flutes at a level like that, back in the late 80s/early 90s, and continued to improve... that's impressive!

(Now I'm starting to sound like a Casey Burns rep!)

[Casey Burns]

Thank you for the kind words Richard! You were always one of my favorite clients and also responsible for me pushing myself to continually improve my work!

Am still hard at it though I have a semi-retirement strategy. That would be stocking up enough flutes to sell deep into retirement, and then otherwise spending time making all the strange instruments I've wanted to make, as well as having the luxury to work on one flute over a span of months the way some other top makers do it.

You were also important in helping me understand Irish music. I still have your instruction sheets somewhere from the early years of Lark Camp. Also, one of your other students from 1987 Lark Camp named Nancy Ball and I have enjoyed being married ever since!

It would be great to see you sometime - I may be down in the southland for a bit later in winter.

Casey

[jadphoto]

Casey Burns and Lark Camp in the '80s prompts some fond memories for me as well. Playing a highland pipe duet with Casey at the camp fire one night among them.

This was not your normal duet, nothing was ever "normal" at Lark Camp as I remember, anyway, Casey hadn't played pipes in a while and mine had a chanter reed with roughly the same cross section as a wooden clothes pin...so I blew and squeezed while Casey fingered the chanter.

And we sounded damn fine if I do say so myself.

JD

[Casey Burns]

Joe, the reason for that piping (Chris Caswell was also playing with us on his GHP) is that we were piping my father into the afterlife - as I had just found out that he had passed away suddenly just the day before.

As we were playing some French tune on the Great Highland Pipes together you said to me (as I was playing the melody on your chanter) "Why am I stamping my feet?" We had a good laugh about that that my father would have appreciated!

[pancelticpiper]

Thanks Casey!

Bummer that I can't play flute any more. I would get hand cramps and shoulder pain even back then, and things didn't improve with age! So around ten years ago I had to face facts and sell off all my flutes (including that wonderful c1860 Koehler & Son, London flute with your headjoint, a great player).

I'm fine with vertical instruments, so my piping and whistling aren't affected.

Due to the musical limitations of Low D Whistles I'd love to get a great-playing Irish Kena. I've made a couple out of PVC but the octaves are wrong, I need a different ID tubing I guess.

Anyhow this is all offtopic but the bottom line is that Casey knows how to make flutes!

[plunk111]

Casey - if you ever start making cornetti, let me know!

Pat

[jadphoto]

Joe, the reason for that piping (Chris Caswell was also playing with us on his GHP) is that we were piping my father into the afterlife - as I had just found out that he had passed away suddenly just the day before.

As we were playing some French tune on the Great Highland Pipes together you said to me (as I was playing the melody on your chanter) "Why am I stamping my feet?" We had a good laugh about that that my father would have appreciated!

I had forgotten that Chris Caswell had joined in...that was quite a night.

So does three pipers playing on two sets of pipes constitute a duet or a trio?

JD

[pancelticpiper]

does three pipers playing on two sets of pipes constitute a duet or a trio?

I was going to work up a stunt something like that: I play double pipes, and for one of the Kitchenpiping Contests I was going to sit on a chair in between two pipers who were blowing their pipes but having their hands off the chanters, and I was going to have one hand on each chanter, and play a duet by myself.

We have a lefthanded piper in the band so the positioning should work out OK, two pipers mirror-image on either side of me. We haven't actually tried to do it yet.

[jadphoto]

does three pipers playing on two sets of pipes constitute a duet or a trio?

I was going to work up a stunt something like that: I play double pipes, and for one of the Kitchenpiping Contests I was going to sit on a chair in between two pipers who were blowing their pipes but having their hands off the chanters, and I was going to have one hand on each chanter, and play a duet by myself.

We have a lefthanded piper in the band so the positioning should work out OK, two pipers mirror-image on either side of me. We haven't actually tried to do it yet.

Richard,

There used to be a Las Vegas show group called the Wilder Brothers, think Louis Prima hard driving jazz/rock kinda groove. Well all the "brothers", I think they really were siblings, were reed players (and damn fine ones too). They did a piece of business where they all faced stage left and while fingering the top hand of their own saxophone would reach forward with their right hand and finger the bottom keys of the horn in front of them. The last guy would reach back across the whole line and finger the first guys bottom keys. Pretty amazing stuff.

They didn't just play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star like that...they cooked.

Your "double pipes" trio sounds intriguing, be sure and put it on YouTube!

JD

[psychodonald]

I have a Burns Folk Flute and a 6 keyed Burns Flute, both are Boxwood. In my opinion, they are wonderful instruments and Casey is great to work with, a real gentleman. I also own an M&E 8 keyed Ebonite flute, which I enjoy and is a good flute; however, I much prefer the Burns flutes for several different reasons which I won't go into with this post.

[keithsandra]

Michael Cronnolly says he has never seen the flute from the picture I sent him. The mystery thickens ...

I'm going off topic so can start a new post if anyone is interested - with pictures if someone can accept them by email and post them for me, (I've forgotten how).

Best,

K.

[ChrisCracknell]

Just wanted to add that I have a two part Mopane folk flute from Casey, bought direct from him about 2006(?). In itself, it is a beautiful object - I like the simplicity of a stick with no rings, no end cap, no twiddles, just a shape, beautiful wood with a beautiful surface finish and holes. It plays well too - the bottom D Honks well. The third register is not quite as free as with some of my other flutes but not too bad either. I added a C thumb hole which works well for me, though the cross-fingered C Naturals are also ok. It tunes at 440Hz for me just over a 1/4 inch out. I made a ring to fit in the socket to hold it approximately that far out. I do not hesitate to play it in sessions if things run that way, though it is not my normal session flute.

Due to general pessimism I reinforced the socket on the headjoint with some angling line. Actually looks as if it belongs there in my opinion. Not that the tenon had any problems - I just felt uneasy having the socket on what has become my camping flute unprotected. A tenon cap and a dummy socket filler would probably serve the same purpose for transport without a hard case.

I know others who have the three part folk flutes - these play well too and pack into a shorter package for transport, but in my taste lack the optical elegance of the two part flute. This is not a denigration of the three part, rather praise of the two part!

All in all, in my humble opinion, absolutely the best value for money available at the cost effective end of the market. I don't know Casey and have never communicated with him beyond placing the order for the flute back then and all dealings to do with the order went well.