No, actually, like many others, it was hearing Liam O'Flynn in Planxty and Paddy Keenan in the Bothy Band that first made me want to learn the pipes. That and seeing John Tuohy of San Diego playing. And 15 short years and one or two false starts later....here I am, doing it!
Patrick D'Arcy wrote:A Kerrygold butter advert.......... stop laughing
Patrick.
Heh - I'm not laughing at that... in 1995, I was playing in a 'wool skirt band', thinking the GHBs were the bee's knees.... and I went to see the All-Ireland county final on television (8:00 in the morning in a pub ) and the Setanta production had a UP playing the background on the breaks and advertisements and such. Although I'd heard the Chieftains on CD, somehow the audio in those Setanta bits really struck me... then I saw 'Braveheart' and the piping in that was what sealed it. Less than 6 months later, I had a practice set and shortly after had a full set on order.
A New Foundland band (Pat's People as I recall) played in a pseudo Irish pub in downtown LA in the early 70s. The lead singer and I got to talking and he said find The Chieftains and a band called Planxty. Went to an import record store and got the 4 Chieftains albums and the first Planxty album. The Chieftains played UCLA in 74 and I got 2nd row seats, right in front of Paddy Maloney. Worked up in the Bay Area in the mid 70s and met Denis Brooks who swapped a Matt Kiernan chanter for the one Kevin Carr sold me. And the rest is history.
Oh yeah, I wanted a Rowsome set cuz it's THE chick magnet. :roll:
I learned from my father. And he learned from his father.
Both of these men were also named The Dude.
My first tune was the clan march, Mairseail Dude.
I'm the dude!
"The world is divided into three types of people. Those who can count, and those who cannot."
-Gene Wolfe
The Dude wrote:I learned from my father. And he learned from his father.
Both of these men were also named The Dude.
My first tune was the clan march, Mairseail Dude.
I knew your father. He may have been an old bag, but he was certainly no uilleann piper.
I blame all of those lovely and inspirational folks who used to come through virginia and do concerts at the Prism Coffeehouse... and findin' out that Nick Whitmer lived only an hour or so from me just across the Blue Ridge Mountains... hanging out with Paddy on the back porch of the Prism and shooting the sh*t in Nick's workshop admist the smell of blackwood dust... that is what got me started.
Growing up in a strong Scots-Irish community along the Appalachian Mountains helped a lot too... always heard the tunes and songs growing up... just took a nudge from my wife while watching Paddy back in the mid 90's and saying something like "i cannot imagine how anyone could do that."... and alluding to the fact that she doubted my ability to ever pull off something like that...
Going on something like 10 years now... bet she regrets that comment now... NNYYAAAA!!!
PLaying whistle and guitar I started in the local GHB band in Gothenburg. I never really liked the harsh sound as I wanted to sound like Finbar Furey. Had a few compilations of Irish music, one where he plays Piper in the meadow straying. I got a practice set in 2000 and Piper in the meadow straying is still one of my favorite tunes. (Longing for my S. Gallagher full set...)
what got me into UP was hearing the Fox Chase by (I think) the Fureys on some dodgy old compilation tape that cost about 3 quid from a garage, followed a few months later by the first Afro Celt Soundsystem album. Those two events were then closely followed by my employer accidentally overpaying me, coincidentally it was enough to afford a Ray Sloan practice set...
Always loved the pipes for as long as I can remember. But only recently did I go totally round the bend and decide I was going to learn to play the bloody things or else.... Just came back from Ireland today with my first practice set.
Maybe fell off a horse onto my head one too many times.
am I the only one who fell completely in love with the pipes before he ever heard them or saw a good photo of a set?
I read the history of the instrument and some descriptions from makers' pages and that sealed it for me. I was obsessed enuff with the culture that I didn't need anything more...
Hearing Leo Rowsome playing the Foxhunter set on Radio Eireann in the mid-1950s (on Ciaran Mac Mahuna's "Job of Journey Work" program on Sunday afternoons - from 2.45 pm. I remember the time because my father always refused to drive us to the Sunday matinee at the movies until the programme was over, which meant that we were ALWAYS late for the movies). Then, seeing Paddy Maloney and a fledgeling Chieftains playing live in the Abbey Theatre production of the Playboy of the Western World in abouat 1966.
Began playing Northumbrian pipes in 1964, and played in the ?1966 Loughborough festival sessions after show with Felix Doran, who put on my set of NP (probably because his belows fit the blowpipe...). Have since been avid listener to UP, esp L O'Flynn. Last year (talk about slow gestation) I got a set of Alan Ginsberg pipes, and am slowly beginning my 21 years learning. Still playing the NPs though.
) and the Setanta production had a UP playing the background on the breaks and advertisements and such. Although I'd heard the Chieftains on CD, somehow the audio in those Setanta bits really struck me... then I saw 'Braveheart' and the piping in that was what sealed it. Less than 6 months later, I had a practice set and shortly after had a full set on order.
