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Ever wonder about the two three-paced roll thing? It actually was adapted from military brass bands and, they say, Tom McAllister Sr. made it a standard for pipe bands about 80 years ago. Today, it’s okay for MSRs, if you like that sort of thing, but a bit archaic for medleys.

The RSPBA to my knowledge is the only association that actually has a rule for what bands must play in a medley. Ever since a Grade 1 band started its World’s selection with a waulking song in 1992, there’s been a rule that bands must start with two three-paced rolls, with an E and with a tune in “quickmarch” time.

Every other association in the world just lets bands play whatever they want within the allotted time. No big deal. Go for it.

But it’s those three-paced rolls that get me. Haven’t we progressed beyond that stamped-out predictable start? The drummers are the most creative musicians in the band – they compose pretty much everything they play. So why do they limit themselves to Tom McAllister Sr.’s decree of the 1930s?

No crying in piping

The image of David Beckham sobbing after he was taken off of the England-Portugal World Cup quarter-file match made me wonder about crying in sport and pipe band competition (which more and more people are saying is a sporting event). I couldn’t recall seeing a player crying actually during a game, and I tried to recall if I’d ever witnessed seeing a piper or drummer older than 12 crying at a contest.

I have. It happened once. It was at the World Pipe Band Championships in 1984. As I and a few members of the band I played with at the time, Polkemmet, were walking off of the march-past field, there was a piper from a rival Grade 1 band that had narrowly lost to the near-indomitable Strathclyde Police. Wearing number-one-dress, the guy just stood there in the middle of Bellahouston Park, shoulders heaving up and down, eyes streaming like the Clyde.

And, of course, everyone I was with tried to ignore him, but one of the pipers in my band extended his heart-felt sympathies by saying, “Aw, quit yer greetin’ ya wee wean!”

Which is to say there’s no crying in piping and drumming, just as there’s no crying in baseball or football – at least during the day of the contest. Sure, there’s lots of emotion in it but, really, it’s just a game. Yes, there are often piles of money wrapped up in it, but that’s a choice people make. At the end of the day it needs to be put in perspective.

A former Scots Guardsman needed to tell “Keeps Hot Things Hot and Cold Things Cold” Beckham to quit his greetin’, and save it for his Crying Room at his mansion or his trip to the bank.

Kids these days

So, there I was under my tree at Hamilton Games judging 21 Grade 5 pipers in one-hour flat (surely a record) and a half-swing sand-wedge across from me was the Professional Strathespey & Reel event. Some of the world’s best solo pipers were playing in it, the likes of Ian K. MacDonald, James, MacHattie, Colin Clansey, Michael Grey, Andrew Hayes . . . the list goes on.

And who was watching? No one. The newbie Grade 5 competitors seemed far more interested in listening to their own competition than in hearing top soloists just across the way. Perhaps they didn’t know or maybe their teachers weren’t pointing them in that direction. Or maybe people don’t feel like standing around a pasture in the baking sun any more than they absolutely have to.

It seems to have always been the way, at least at most contests in Ontario. I don’t know, but when I was a kid (that sounds old) I tried to listen to as much good piping as I could whenever I could.

We learn the most by watching and listening and then trying to immitate what we’ve seen and heard. Could it be that the sporting act of competing is somehow more important to students of the art than listening to, appreciating and emulating the greatest artists?

The Somme

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the first official day of the Battle of the Somme, which actually started with an action at Beaumont-Hamel. More than  57,000 soldiers – from the British side alone – were either killed or wounded on this day alone. The total would surpass 600,000 over the next five months, during which time about 10 kilometres of ground would be gained.

Remarkably, it was from the horror of the Great War that much of Highland piping’s greatest music was composed. This war, more than anything before, spread piping throughout the Commonwealth as a key aspect of the British Army. Armouries around the world still ring with pipes and drums, and we can, to a great degree, look to World War I as a major factor for today’s piping and drumming excellence beyond the UK.

If anyone has any thoughtfulness, “The Battle of the Somme” – one of the greatest pipe tunes made – will be played by a band for the crowd today at the All-Irish, at Kincardine, at Annan, at Embro, at Thornton, at Pugwash, at Round Hill, at Penticton.

We owe so much to those who served and sacrificed for what we have in piping and drumming today, 90 years on.

Stars and bars

Warning: this isn’t much about piping.

The World Cup is all the rage around Toronto. Since Canada’s not in it, and since the country comprises about one-third first-generation immigrants, every other car seems to have a flag mounted to its side. These flags are being sold all around the city. With every result there are spontaneous celebrations down the streets, cars honking, fans cheering, traffic stopping and no one, not even people from the losing side, getting too bothered by it.

Biking along College and Bloor streets I go through Korean, Portugese, Brazillian, Jamaican, Italian, Polish, Czech, Ukraine and Russian areas, each maybe four or five blocks long. It’s a daily dose of world culture. Immigrants to Canada are intensely proud of their new Canadian home, but they keep and show their strong connection to their homeland. It’s part of Canadian culture (at least in Toronto), and maybe also explains the popularity of things-Scottish across the country. One’s no less Canadian being proud of your country of birth.

Apparently there are more than 80,000 US-citizens living in the city of Toronto. Being one of them, I was keen to find an American flag to fly on our car (have one of those, too), but despite trying numerous vendors there was not a single one to be found. In fact, I don’t recall even seeing an American flag on any car at any time over the last two weeks.

I’m not sure why that is. Americans are famous for displaying their patriotism on their sleeves, their lapels, their heart and even tattooed on their skin. It didn’t make sense to me that the tens-of-thousands of US citizens wouldn’t want to fly Old Glory while the US team was still in the World Cup.

Nevermind. Tomorrow we’ll fly our Canadian flag, and on Tuesday we’ll fly our American flag, and on St. Andrew’s Day the Saltire will go up. Maybe we’ll put out the St. George’s Cross if/when England wins it all!

Size matters

Last Saturday at Georgetown, listening to the various bands in various grades, I was conscious of pipe-section sizes. You couldn’t help but be aware of the issue. The 78th Frasers played with 21 pipers, while City of Washington had, I believe, 13, and the Toronto and Peel police bands had numbers in between. In Grade 3, the Hamilton Police band’s section was, I think, 18, playing against bands considerably smaller.

Comparisons are difficult, since sound qualities and texture are radically different. There’s an unmistakable broadness that comes from a band with more than 18 pipers, while a band of 10-to-14 often will come across with a tightness of tone – provided both sections are decently tuned, which almost all bands from Grade 3 upwards are today.

A judge by necessity these days has to remind him or herself that it’s not a numbers game. It’s easy to be impressed or swayed by a larger section because the initial impact is almost always more substantial, even if it isn’t always more refined. The Manawatu band last year at the World’s didn’t necessarily have the largest pipe section, but it had a purity and clarity of chanter sound that is so hard to achieve with even a smaller section. But I’m sure that judges at the World’s had a hard time assessing Manawatu in relation to some of the bands playing with 18, 19, 20 pipers, and it would take a courageous judge to rate a smaller sound with impeccable unison over a massive section with stellar drones and powerful chanter tone.

While I like hearing a variety of sounds, I am a proponent of putting a limit on section sizes to level the field a bit. Competition in any form needs to have as level a playing-field as possible to be as successful and equitable as possible. If Grade 1 pipe section sizes were capped at, say, 18 it would help to put an end to the dilemmas that judges find themselves in, and perhaps mitigate a bit of chagrin. (I stress that I have not heard of any chagrinning from Georgetown.)

And if all Grade X bands continually meet maximum numbers, then the number can be raised accordingly, allowing the requirement and standard to rise as a whole, rather than risk leaving some bands behind in a survival-of-the-biggest struggle.

Jottings from Georgetown

About halfway through judging the Intermediate Amateur Pibaireachd contest I thought to myself, What could be better than being paid to listen to good piping all day long? Even though it was like a windy late-autumn day, the solo piping I heard was impressive, and any one of four in that piobaireachd contest or the Professional Jig could have been placed first by another judge. What’s most impressive are the pipes. There’s hardly an instrument that goes substantially astray and doesn’t have a well-pitched and tuned chanter.

Allison MacDonald, first-on in the Intermediate Amateur Piobaireachd, played “The MacFarlanes’ Gathering” with nice style and with exceptionally good hands. Watch this name. If she sticks with it and gets good tuition, she’s going places.

The Grade 1 band contest was very good. The 78th Frasers were strong with 21 pipers, solid right-round the circle. What was great to hear was that all four bands were a significant improvement over 2005, particularly Peel Police and City of Washington. CoW had a very well-set sound and, if not for some unfortunate mistakes, may have finished higher. Even though I was on piping, I couldn’t help hearing the Toronto Police’s new snares, which, to my ear, seemed lively and nicely pitched.

If pipers and bands could play so well at the trying Georgetown conditions, 2006 should be a very good year in Ontario, with rising standards across the boards.

Offline online

My decision to make the Piper & Drummer online-only came about after years of careful consideration. It was an unusual situation to be in: the print P&D was a great success and people kept telling me that it was the benchmark of  piping/drumming paper publications. P&D Online had become incredibly successful. Since the last major re-modeling of the site, its role was to provide news, while the print was to provide longer features.

My decision to go all-online is supported by lots of data that shows that the future or print is in some peril. There will always be room and demand for lovely, glossy weekend magazines that are all about experience. These generally will have circulations of more than 1 million. While the print P&D is clearly a nice experience, the cost of producing it, and the advertising and subscription charges needed to make it viable were getting out of whack. Developing a top-notch news website is also expensive, but it’s more or less a one-time charge. Publishing with it is basically free.

The new Piper & Drummer website will continue to be not-for-profit. That is, new revenues from whatever paid subscriptions come in, and advertising revenues, will be plowed back into the either the site or new piping/drumming projects. We’ll continue to sponsor other events and causes as we can and as they make sense. I hope that readers and advertisers will like the idea that their money is going to good causes to support their passion.

The fact that the P&D will no longer be connected in any shape to an organization is an important factor, too. Because the P&D magazine went to all PPBSO members, there was some confusion about the brand. Some thought that the completely independent website was also connected, and communicating that it was not was always difficult. Now, it should be absolutely clear that the P&D is independent. Unlike every other piping/drumming publication that I know of, we’re not connected with any organization, we’re not selling anything, and we can report on everything. Content on the site can continue and will continue to be completely objective.

The feedback that I have received and read regarding the move to all-online has been mainly of the “hate to see the print go, but it makes perfect sense and good luck” variety. Those most disappointed with the loss of the print edition seem to be older than 40-60 (my own age bracket), and you can understand why. They are not of the generation that grew up with the Internet, which, to many of those 40-plus folks, is still a mysterious newfangled gizmo.

The new P&D is an adventure. I’m never one to shy away from change, and the P&D, in many ways, has always encouraged and welcomed and called for change in piping/drumming. I’ll miss the old girl, but the future is bright and I’m looking forward to experiencing it with you.

Context

I was at a small competition awhile ago and there were maybe four bands in the Grade 4 event. All of the bands played well and did their best, for sure, but the one that won the contest was streets ahead.

So many times I’ve spoken with prominent judges who have returned from a far-off judging trip, reporting back with effusive praise about such-and-such a band being in top-form at a small contest, and how they are sure to crack the top six at the World’s. Then the World’s comes and that band doesn’t even make the final. I’ve learned to take reports like these with a dose of sodium.

Context can be a funny thing when it comes to subjective competitions like ours. The competitive standard of any pipe band grade is wide-ranging. In any category, the quality range between the best bands and the worst bands is big. When only a few bands are in a contest, the one that plays substantially better than the rest can seem like a world-beater, even though they may only be excellent in the context of that specific contest.

It’s difficult to maintain a mental image of a musical “standard” for a grade. Our perception of quality is made up of so many things. A decent Grade 2 band playing on the day among Grade 3 and Grade 4 bands can seem like FMM incarnate.

It’s amazing to me how bands that function without any other bands in their grade for many hundreds or even thousands of miles can turn up at the World’s and do well. I’m thinking of bands like SFU, Alberta Caledonia, and the 78th Highlanders (Halifax). The greatest example was the Victoria Police in the 1990s. Not only did they have basically no other Grade 1 bands in Australia back then, but they competed at the World’s – and won the damn thing – in their off-season. Uncanny.

I think that the good Grade 4 band that I heard recently will do well when they compete at the World’s in August. I’ll be interested to hear how they ultimately do, and wonder if my mental image of a good standard was accurate.

Shake it up

The union of the Toronto Transit Commission – the organization that runs the city’s subway, streetcar, and bus system – called an illegal wildcat strike at midnight over an issue that they obviously felt strongly about. It sent the city of four-million into a bit of disarray, and the streets were filled with many times more walkers and cyclists than usual weaving through the more-clogged-with-idling-cars-than-usual streets. It annoyed a lot of people, but was effective, I suppose, in highlighting just how important mass-transit is to the city.

Which of course made me think of the pipe band world.

Pipe bands are generally all talk and little action. Despite the fact that there are huge inequities in important issues (e.g., fair and legal compensation for performance rights and royalties on the World’s broadcasts, CDs, and DVDs; travel money; prize money; nepotistic judging) bands don’t seem to have the courage to do anything about it.

Yes, yes, it’s a hobby and all that, but, please, people put way too much time and energy into this “hobby,” and there’s way too much money being made from it by others, to just keep taking it.

Seems to me that if you really want change, or really want to prove a point, you sometimes have to take a courageous stand. I don’t necessarily agree with what Toronto’s transit workers did today, but it got my attention and it showed just how vital they and the system are to the operation of the city. Yes, the work day went on, but at what cost?

When will pipe bands take the same sort of approach to elicit the change they so often talk about, but do nothing about? It’s actually the bands that have the power, not the associations. If they plucked up the courage, big changes could happen – and fast.

List

I thought about numbering my favourite candy/sweeties. Cherry Blasters would be at the top, followed closely by a Cadbury Flake. Chocolate and bad drumming usually give me a big headache, but a Flake, like several large whiskies, is worth the hangover.

More apt I guess are my top pipe band performances. These aren’t necessarily competitively great (although some are), just the ones that stand out in my brain most.

1. SFU – 1995 World’s MSR.
2. 78th Frasers – 1988 Maxville medley
3. SLOT – singing “The Auld Triangle” at their 2005 Pre-World’s Concert
4. SFU – 2005 World’s medley
5. 78th Frasers – “Journey To Skye” at the 1988 concert at Leith Town Hall

Lots more from MacLellan-vintage Strathclyde Police, FMM, Clan MacFarlane and others, if I really thought about it, but that’s I hope enough to prompt a few ideas from others.

More TO spring

Last week on the way home. The Humber River bridge at Old Mill, by the subway station.

Piping Mecca?

Ever since I came to Toronto from Scotland in 1988 I have been struck by something: you could well hear more good piping more often in Canada’s largest city than anywhere in the world.

Just about every evening you can turn on the local or national television news and hear piping at a police occasion, a funeral, or a wedding. In warm weather there are pipers busking in various locations. What’s more, Canadians genuinely seem to like piping. I can’t recall anyone ever saying to me here that they dislike the pipes. In fact, they generally say the love them.

The 48th Highlanders of Canada Pipe Band traditionally opens every Toronto Maple Leafs hockey season, and, similarly, the Toronto Police Pipe Band plays at every Toronto Blue Jays home opener. Torontonians know that and love it.

That’s not to say by any means that there are more or more excellent pipers in Toronto than Glasgow or Edinburgh. I actually busked for a few years on Princes Street. I’m just observing that you’re probably more likely to hear good piping in Toronto – without having to seek it out – than in those places.

The pipes are a customary part of the overall social fabric of Toronto.

Pie-anne

Any musician involved with things Scotland will be intrigued by this – Ben Nevis piano. People were far more industrious in the past. No one thought twice of building by hand large cairns on every hill that Queen Victoria climbed in Aberdeenshire, so pushing a piano up Britain’s highest mountain is a no-brainer, literally.

Now, there must be a set of pipes up there mouldering away . . .

Rotate this

Not that you should care, but here’s what I’m listening to these days:

– Yeah yeah yeahs – Show Your Bones
– Michael Grey – Shimla Hum (hot off the press!)
– Cat Power – The Greatest

Results?

One or two people inquired through Blogpipe messages (e-mail’s much better for that, by the way) why the results of the annual Dr. Dan Reid Memorial Invitational Recital-Competition Piping event that apparently went on in San Francisco this weekend past have not appeard on P&D Online.

The answer is simple: no one sent them. It’s Thursday, five days after the event, and no one from or competing in the Recital-Contest has bothered, and now they’re kind of stale. I saw the results posted here and there, but my policy is never to lift anything from other Web sites. I ask for copyright respect and I respect copyrights of others. What’s more, so many of those sites struggle with accuracy. Someone did send the Dan Reid results to me as a cut-and-paste from one of those iffy sites, and, again I won’t copy them.

I do chase down results of the major solo events, like Oban and Aviemore, or make sure that there’s an agent in the field to report them, but for most events I gauge overall reader interest by how quickly results are forwarded.

Anyway, I hope that answers this question for anyone who’s interested.

Toronto spring

Just cherry trees in Toronto’s High Park caught on a quick detour on the way to work the other day.

Bell ring

This Sunday is the start of the UK pipe band season. Usually Dunbar is the first contest, but this year the calendar makes it Gourock on the other side of the country. May the best bands win.

Anyone who follows sports knows the sense of anticipation that comes with opening day, when the bell rings on the new season. Even fans of the most woeful teams are optimistic about their club’s chances for improvement over the previous year, and want to see how the off-season acquisitions and departures impact the team.

The pipe band world is no different. Sure, there are the Yankees and Red Sox and Cardinals of the pipe band major leagues in FMM, Shotts and SFU (in no specific order or equivalent), but there are always the groups nipping at the heals, that could finally make the new season the year they turned the corner.

I’ve often thought that the RSPBA, PPBSO or whoever else could create more excitement over the results, over what band does what from week to week, with more analysis from expert commentators. What fun that could be, provided people weren’t afraid to speak their mind with objectivity and fairness – and actually sign their name to their words. Oh, well, just a thought.

The week before a season starts brings great positive tension, the optimistic dreams of competitors and supporters always spring eternal.

Facts

I just read comments on the occasionally entertaining and usually selacious “Beer Tent” about the little story about Gordon Lee joining SFU. I thought the piece was totally benign, no matter which way it was sliced, but there’s always someone – and usually someone who’s afraid to put his name to his or her thoughts – who’s convinced that I have some secret agenda or intentionally try to misrepresent the “facts.”

The fact is, I personally could not give a rat’s arse about what any band or piper or drummer does. I don’t care where a band comes from. I have no predilection towards any group, whether I once played with them or not, or any country or city that I may or may not have lived in.

All I personally care about is that bands and soloists – all of them – play well and keep building their respective scenes. I only care that people play and compete and perform and judge fairly, and that everyone gets whatever they fairly deserve.

I do my best to acquire the facts and report news as I feel is appropriate and commensurate with the actual news value. I’m not a mind-reader and I don’t spend all day investigating reports or conjuring up stories. In general, what you see on Piper & Drummer Online comes from incoming tips and bands and soloists sending their news. If you don’t read about something, it’s usually because no one bothered to send it in or because it’s not, in my judgment, news.

It’s too bad that some in the piping and drumming world are bent on thinking there’s an ulterior motive to everything. Generally speaking, you’ll find these people doing the most complaining and the least contributing.

Walking out

The news that the Royal Burgh of Stirling Pipe Band’s drum section effectively walked out with only a few weeks before the first big contest of the season can’t help but be surprising. I don’t know the circumstances around it, but I do know that there is something of an unwritten rule in pipe band etiquette that, after about February, if you’re still on a band’s roster you should see the season through, even if it means grinning and bearing it.

(That said, if you can’t commit the time, or if family or illness get in the way, you have to do what’s right for you and the band. No use muddling through music and letting people down.)

But, if you have the time and health, you should stick with it and do your best to help the cause. I don’t know what the RBS players intend to do, but walking out to join another band for the season should really be treated with total disdain. In fact, I fully support rules that keep quitters from joining another band for at least six months.

That’s probably too draconian for some associations. But just as there is an unwritten rule that you don’t jump ship months, much less weeks, before the season, there should also be a rule that bands don’t welcome those ship-jumping players. Pipe bands can be overly desperate to build their rosters, even if it means turning a blind eye to the circumstances. In this age of mega-sections, who can blame them for succumbing to the temptation?

But, really, a band’s reputation for adding band-hoppers to their roster should suffer just as much as the players’ reputations themselves. The world’s best bands of course perform well, but they also do so with their integrity intact. The models for pipe band success are those bands that build their rosters with dignity and respect. Occasionally, that means saying no to a band-hopper who has left even their fiercest competition in a lurch.

Made to be broken

There seems to be a bit of a groundswell of emotion about St. Laurence O’Toole’s entry to the Scottish Championships going awry, and most of it seems to be in favour of the letting the band play. I posted a poll on the site to see what the temperament might be, and, sure enough, about 75 per cent think that SLOT should be allowed to compete.

I’m the first to support the enforcement of rules when it comes to competition. It drives me crazy when competitors seemed to try to circumvent them by turning up late and being allowed to play at the end in a solo event when I was there at the crack of crow’s pee, respectful of an early draw. But you generally know who to believe and who to suspect by their track record. There are people who have made a career (or at least a reputation) of “hiding behind bushes” trying to slip in later.

When more serious issues like SLOT’s come up, I think that good judgment should prevail. Has the band ever done this before? Is there any reason to suspect fiddling the system? Do the negative aspects of not allowing them to compete outweigh the positive? Are there in fact any positive aspects of keeping them out of the Scottish?

Ultimately, in a case like this, I think the competing Grade 1 bands should be asked if they have any problem with making an exception. I would be shocked and amazed if a band insisted that the decision should stand. After all, who wants a prize when there’s a figurative asterisk by it in the minds of those who care? There’s plenty of time before the event to contact the 12 pipe-majors. If the majority thinks the decision should stand, then fair enough. But if my hunch is correct, and the bands want an exception made for SLOT, then the association should do the right thing and make an exception based on the evidence, the band’s history, and common sense.

Entry into crater

St. Laurence O’Toole’s unfortunate non-entry-entry to the Scottish Championships reminded me how slowly things can change in the pipe band world. In an age of instant response and confirmation, bands and pipers and drummers still have to enter for most events by old-fashioned stamp-post-and-prayer, and hope that nothing goes wrong along the way. Entry fees are the main reason, since few associations have any kind of instant payment system set up.

I once entered for the Fergus Games, or something, back in the 1980s and planned to make the 15-hour drive to the event. I hadn’t received any notice of my entry, so I decided to call the PPBSO president, the late George Forgan, who told me that there had been a Canadian mail strike and my entry was not received in time. No questions, please; I wasn’t allowed to play, and that was that. My fault for not calling before the deadline to confirm. And so it goes.

Pipe band associations and contests need to have entry rules. But it’s important not to lose sight of the bigger picture. St. Laurence O’Toole obviously puts its heart and soul into what they do, and wouldn’t for an instant be trying to fudge the system. Everyone – association, judges, their competition, punters – wants them to compete. In cases like that, it perhaps makes sense to take a band at its word and quietly give them a call to make sure there wasn’t an oversight or lost mail or whatever.

The higher the standard, the sweeter the victory, and I’m sure SLOT’s competition would all want them to compete at the Scottish. Wouldn’t they?

Travelling all-stars

The last post about Allan MacDonald’s recording brought back some memories, mainly because of his really clever use of the Jew’s harp on a few tracks. It was either the spring or fall of 1977 or ’78, I believe, when I was a 14- or 15-year-old in St. Louis. British Caledonian Airways for some strange reason decided to start a St. Louis-Prestwick non-stop flight, and to launch it they sent over the Grade 1 B-Cal Pipe Band.

Back then, and perhaps even today, a top-flight Scottish band suddenly landing in St. Louis for a kid-piper would be akin to a Little Leaguer on a farm being visited by the New York Yankees. B-Cal then, as ScottishPower is now even after many name changes, was a band of all-stars players. Not the entire competition band made the trip, but I remember Hugh MacInnes, Tom Johnstone, Rab Kelly, Frank Richardson and Rab Turner being in St. Louis.

They played up and down the streets of Clayton (?!), a suburb of St. Louis in the first afternoon, and my dad took me out of school to go see them, since he recognized, as always, how important it was to me. Feather bonnets and tunics and plaids, and they were larger than life.

I think the band then had to play downtown that evening, and I and some members of the Invera’an band, which I played with, managed to tag along with them. I remember ending up in O’Connell’s, a great St. Louis pub, with many of them. Hugh MacInnes must have been in top playing-form then, and I remember that he was playing P-M Angus MacDonald’s pipes, a set of 1890 or so MacRaes. (Angus unfortunately didn’t make the trip.) He had them out at the pub, and everyone (including me, who must have been shockingly bad) had a tune among the many pints.

But the most memorable part of the experience was Allan MacDonald when he pulled out a Jew’s harp and started playing “Mrs. MacLeod of Raasay,” alternating with his practice chanter. I’d never heard anything like it, and it made me practice all weekend, all week, all year and all life . . . at least until a year or so ago. (I even tried to learn how to play a Jew’s harp for awhile, and discovered that you could make a perfect Star Wars’ light saber sound with it.)

It’s funny how things like that can just happen, even to a wide-eyed adolescent piper in St. Louis. Not that I’m necessarily notable, but I think that probably most  notable pipers or drummers can recall similar happenstance being something of a turning-point in their career.

Sunday tonic

One of the problems I find with having your whole recorded music collection on a single device is that you sort have to know what you’re looking for when you’re not sure what you’re looking for. Because you see hundreds of titles or artists scrolled through with a jog-wheel, it’s easy to miss things you’ve forgotten about or even forgot you’d acquired. Flipping through CDs is or was a better process, and I hope Apple or whoever can find a better way to merge the music with graphics.

Coming home from work on the subway on Friday I happened across Margaret Stewart and Allan MacDonald’s Colla mo rún, their 2001 Greentrax recording, which has always been on my iPod but a favourite that had somehow fallen through the jog-wheel cracks. What a brilliant piece of work this is, made even more sublime when listened to on the westbound Bloor line.

It’s been on our home system all weekend. Allan’s playing is so creative and so pure and so rhythmical and so deft. His Gaelic singing is evocative and smoky, and if you’re not moved by “Tha sior cóineadh am beinn dóbhrain,” or his overwhelmingly tuneful pipe and ringing hi-A on “na h-eilthirch,” I’m afraid that you may have a heart of Aberdeen granite.

This is a terrific recording, for the Toronto subway, for the A82 to Crianlarich, for a Sunday morning anywhere.

Sponsors again

Simon Fraser University’s going to the British Championships in June in addition to the World’s in August is quite a thing. It’s not so much the money – which can always be found, if you really want to do it – but the time commitment. It speaks a great deal about that band’s passion for what they do.

I am very interested to see how SFU does with their new Naill chanters. SFU’s played Sinclairs since the mid-1980s, and, to me, this is their sound. Well-set Sinclair chanters produce an unmistakable ring. But, who knows? Perhaps Naill, working with Terry and Jack Lee, have been able to capture that ring, or even improve on it.

I don’t know how SFU subsidizes its travel, but I would hope that the good people at Naill are pitching in. It makes marketing sense. The British will be a telling day for Naill’s business. If SFU were to win the contest it would most certainly open Naill to the massive band chanter market, a sector that it has not yet been able to capture with the same success it has had in the relatively small solo market. Any chanter-maker with a winning Grade 1 band at a major reaps huge rewards.

I think more equipment manufacturers – bagpipe makers, drum companies, chanter makers, kilt makers – should look at one-time product launch sponsorships. Rather than committing to sponsoring a band in a long-range deal, these companies should use bands to launch their new products by publicizing it and funding the travel to the event or for the season. Assuming that the products perform well, it’s really the least they could do in return for such great publicity.