my favourite pieces of piping

[john]

1. paddy keenan playing garrett barrys jig on the live bbc recording - you can hear him reinventing the tune as he goes along - even when he makes a mistake and loses track of where he is you still know you're listening to something newly forged in his mind in the moment
2. ronan browne's opening slow air on the first afro-celt sound systen album - he gets colours and tones out of the chanter that i didn't know were possible - i tried to learn it from michael mcgoldrick a good while ago but just wasnt ready for it - i'd love to see a transcription

[john]

sorry for bumping this one back to the top but are there no takers for mentioning piping highlights that have inspired and driven people on to become better players?

[Uilliam]

No

[rorybbellows]

I tend to be inspired by a particular player more than a particular piece .

RORY

[Murphdasurf]

I'll play...

Another Paddy Keenan number.

The Rainy Day on the 1975 album.
Specially the 2nd part.

[ausdag]

Patsy Touhey - The Maid on the Green - courtesy of Ross's Music Page
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfil ... y_maid.mp3

[mukade]

As Rory said, you learn more from the whole piper than a particular tune, but...

Those people who learned from Heather Clarke's book will have a particular memory of Garret Barry's jig.
The recording on The Pipering of Willie Clancy 2 will show you what can be done with the tune.
No matter how many times you listen to it, it erupts with new ideas.

Mukade

[Cathy Wilde]

I'm a seriously green piper so probably don't grok nuances yet, but in my limited experience, here's the stuff that I've loved so much I've listened over and over and over again ...

Paddy Keenan -- Cregg's Pipes ("Out of the Wind & Into The Sun"), any version of his Blackbird
Paddy Keenan & Paddy Glackin -- a bunch of tracks on "Doublin'"
Paddy Keenan & Tommy Peoples Live at the Katherine Cornell Theatre
Various and Sundry Paddy Maloney bits
Mickey Dunne -- Geary's, Colonel Frazier, Bucks of Oranmore set on "Legacy"
Brian McNamara -- Travelling Through Blarney & Aggie Whyte's set off "Reed Only"
Mick O'Brien -- Kitty Lie Over, pretty much all of it + all things Mick O'Brien
Cillian Vallely -- Úlrchill A' Chreagáin / Gorman's / Tá An Saol Ar Fad I nGrá Liom ("Common Ground")
Cillian & Niall Vallely -- stuff from "Callan Bridge"
Seamus Ennis -- "The Larks March"
Tommy Martin -- Gooseberry Bush set & The Fox Chase off "Shady Woods" I also like his "Green Grow the Rushes O"
Pat Broaders -- first parts of The Fox Chase/Foxhunters off some "Hidden Treasures of Chicago" CD
Louise Mulcahy -- everything
Mhaire Ni Grada -- Merry Blacksmith set on You Tube
Gain Ainm Piper -- Gweebarra of the Waves

[bensdad]

"Mhaire Ni Grada -- Merry Blacksmith set on You Tube"

Couldn't find that one at all.

[Patrick D'Arcy]

Seamus Ennis - Limeretty Limeretty Hillhockers
Willie Clancy - With You Against The Wall
Jimmy O'Brien-Moran - The Miltown Fourteen



Pat.

[nemethmik]

"Mhaire Ni Grada -- Merry Blacksmith set on You Tube"
Couldn't find that one at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-g3vFvcy8

[Cathy Wilde]

Thanks! And speaking of YouTube, I forgot this one ... another favorite I visit a lot (along with, of course, Seamus Ennis's Morning Thrush clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHhjCygNL7g

[Pyroh]

My first contact with UP was in music in Treasure Island - I guess that Treasure Cave (Langstrom/Langstern pony) was pretty important to me.

And then, when Paddy Moloney starts the pipe part of Coombe no.6, that just slays me

But of course, there are many more tunes.

[Steve Turner]

My first exposure to Uilleann piping was when a friend put on a record by Bob Stewart and Finbar Furey. I was smitten by the sound of those pipes, and I asked my friend what that instrument was. He explained to me, as best he could, what they were, and even though I was a bit (quite a lot actually) drunk at the time, I told him that they were the instrument for me. It wasn't the beer talking, and for me the album 'Morning on a Distant Shore' takes me back 16 years, and puts a shiver up my spine (in the nicest way possible).

Also, Sean Potts playing 'Farewell to Erin' blows me away totally

[john]

thanks for the contributions
one other recording that mesmerizes me is of liam o'flynn playing byrd's march from planxty's words and music - i love the fullness of his tone and the ease with which he deals with the really ornate ornamentation, especially the trilling