What got you hooked to 'our' music?

Key_of_D · Post by **Key_of_D** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:29 pm

Tony McGinley wrote:

I just wish I had made the discovery a bit earlier in my life.

Oh so true...

WhistlinBob · Post by **WhistlinBob** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:17 am

The Wife's Uncle Joe got me started he played some tunes at a family wedding about 18 years ago loved the sound got some ITM recordings
The Cheiftans and that sort didn't pick up a whistle until about 5 years ago was more into the vocal side before I guess

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:01 pm

I was in a Renaissance Festival as a herald in the early 80s (my best friend suggested it as a way to pick up girls), and I really liked a few groups playing Irish music...but I quickly forgot about it (being 14 and meeting pretty girls can do that to you).

Then, as a freshman in college, I bought Van Morrison and the Chieftan's album because I was a Van Morrison fan. While I loved the Chieftan's music, it again slipped from my mind.

Then, in 1989 at a local improv comedy show, and leaving the show I heard someone singing the Star of the County Down. My wife and I entered the bar and spent the rest of the evening entranced by Tom Dahill's singing, fiddle playing and accordion work. This time I didn't forget the music, we started attending lots of local shows, and one day I decided I wanted to sound like Matt Malloy...but being poor in college realized I could only afford to sound like Paddy Maloney on his generation whistle. It took me about 10 years before I decided that while the whistle was nice, it still wasn't a flute, and I found myself standing before a bamboo flute maker's stall at the same Renaissance festival only 20 years later. It was only when I bought my first bamboo flute that I became serious about playing and learning tunes, and I've been happily tooting away since.

Eric

lilymaid · Post by **lilymaid** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:01 am

I had this art teacher in high school, a lovely lady who taught me to make paper and bind books and ended up moving away to Ireland, herself. She used to leave various and sundry kinds of folk and traditional music playing at the back of the classroom. Sometimes it was Irish. I had never bothered to think about that sort of music before, (I liked Bach at the time. That was about it.) but I ended up liking it very much.

In reading, I had discovered these strange, wonderful, dark, lovely things called ballads and became quite fascinated with them. When I found out they were tied up with traditional music too, I ended up being quite thoroughly in love with it.

PallasAthena · Post by **PallasAthena** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:10 pm

My parents introduced me to traditional music when I was a baby. I've liked it ever since, and it is practically the only thing I listen to (they tried to introduce me to rock, as well, but that never quite took).

My high school band has a highland pipe corps (regrettably, I don't play the pipes) and a Scottish-style drum line (I say "style" because they still play in an American way enough that my friend, a piper, who knows the correct Scottish snare drumming method is accused by the snare drummers of playing incorrectly). I idolized the entire band, but particularly the pipers and drummers, as an elementary school kid. They'd sometimes practice in the parking lot of the elementary school. Being only in elementary school, I didn't understand that there was a difference between Irish and Scottish music traditions and culture and I doubt it ever occured to me that tartan and highlands pipes are largely Scottish. I didn't get into Scottish music as well as Irish music until I realized there was a difference.

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:52 pm

PallasAthena wrote:....(snip)... Being only in elementary school, I didn't understand that there was a difference between Irish and Scottish music traditions and culture and I doubt it ever occured to me that tartan and highlands pipes are largely Scottish. I didn't get into Scottish music as well as Irish music until I realized there was a difference.

As the Irish Rovers used to say - the Irish gave both the bagpipes and the kilt to the Scots - and the Scots haven't seen the joke yet!!

Welcome to the madhouse.

The Sporting Pitchfork · Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:42 pm

Music goes back a long way in my family...none of it traditional, as far as I know (although my great-grandfather played wooden concert flute, but he was Danish and played in John Philip Sousa's marching band). My maternal grandfather was a fantastic baritone singer & did some recordings for NBC back in the late-40s-early-50s. My father's a fantastic singer as well and both my parents played the piano a bit.

I started on the piano when I was four...never really liked it. Quit playing seriously when I was 12, which I regret now that I actually want to play it...Around the same time, I took a trip to Scotland with my parents, where I heard lots of pipers busking on the streets. I hassled my parents that I wanted to learn pipes for the rest of the trip, but soon forgot about it. I was a band geek in school-- played trombone in the school band, jazz band, local youth symphony, that sort of stuff. When I was 15, I moved to Santa Cruz, CA and to my shock, discovered there were kids in the band who were learning Highland pipes. The band director at the time was really big on pipes and had struck a deal with a very good local piper, Jay Salter, to come in and teach interested students. So I thought, "This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," and signed right up.

A few weeks after I started on the chanter, Jay told me he had a friend from Scotland, a "piping master" coming to town to do a house concert. At the time, my prototypical image of a "piping master" was an old bearded guy in a kilt and my goal in life was nothing more than to be able to play "Amazing Grace." I went to the show and saw this guy in a ripped t-shirt and jeans and a Moroccan skull cap with curly red hair bursting out from under it rolling smokes out on the deck. This was the piping master and his name was Hamish Moore. After hearing him play, I was totally hooked. Along with my friends David Brewer, George Grasso, and several others, I just became utterly mad about Irish and Scottish music...It was so serious, I didn't really discover punk until college...

My arc into madness proceeded as follows-- Age 16: took up whistle; started playing Highland pipes. Age 17: took up Scottish smallpipes; first heard Bothy Band, Planxty, etc. Age 18: took up flute. Age 20: studied at Glasgow University. Got drunk with Allan MacDonald; learned a hell of a lot. Age 22: spent a summer in Dingle. Cillian O Briain just happened to have a practice set for sale in his workshop; figured "I didn't really need this new credit card anyway..."; Played loads of music and learned loads of tunes; learned to love polkas. Age 27: More than ten years on now. I do gigs & play the odd session around Portland. Just ordered a new UP chanter today and have regulators on the way as well...Am dreaming incessantly about flat sets...It never ends...