The old letter!

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When Piper Trevor Stewart joined our Bushmills session, a couple of weeks ago, I told local Scottish Smallpipes player Alan Wade that Trevor was coming up, so he made a point of being there. 

After a while Alan produced an old letter & asked Trevor to look at it. Trevor was rather surprised to say the least, because this old letter had actually been written by Trevor himself. 

He had written to Alan's Dad Sam about Pipes & Piping, as Sam had also been an Uilleann Piper. Alan had found the old letter amongst his father's Piping gear but there was no date on the letter. However, Trevor knew by the Belfast address that he must have sent it, way back in 1969 

........ so that was 40 years ago!

So what were you doing 40 years ago?

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The passing of time!

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Monday 5th October

I recently enjoyed yet another Birthday & a couple of days later an old friend Kenny Hadden, sent me a copy of an old photo of myself & friends performing as guests at the Thurso Folk Festival, way back in 1981.

As you can nearly see, back then I was a Banjo player. 

Maggies Leap ~ Thurso 1981

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The Joy of Pipes!

Saturday 26th September

Last Thursday night we had Uilleann, Border & Scottish Smallpipes at our session in Portrush, then last night in Bushmills, we had a different Uilleann Piper {Trevor Stewart}, plus the Scottish Smallpiper {Alan Wade} & a Northumbrian Piper {Sam Fleming}.

As a Fiddler, I just love playing along with Pipes and it was brilliant having those three very different pipes & their own music, all at the same session. 

With us living on the edge of Ireland, looking out on Scotland, it is perfectly natural that this region should see a sharing of each other's Traditional Music & instruments. However, I must confess, I was constantly tuning the Fiddle up & down, for nearly four hours, between the Uilleann & the Scottish Smallpipes, as they were never exactly in with each other, but it was worth every minute of it.

Luckily I had my spare Fiddle with me too, so I was able to tune that Fiddle to F,  for the Northumbrian Tunes.

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Bushmills Inn Session

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Saturday 22nd August

We had a great night, with old friends & new joining us at the Bushmills Inn, including: 

Emmett Lenaghan & Emmett Conor junior, over on holiday from Nottingham.

Excellent musicians the pair of them. 

Emmett senior is actually a member of  the group Acushla

 

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Medieval Music for ~ 'Your Highness'!

Six of us spent yesterday in a studio, recording 4 tracks of Medieval Music for the forthcoming movie 'Your Highness'! 

"A fantasy movie about an arrogant, lazy prince and his more heroic brother who must complete a quest in order to save their father's kingdom."

"Meet Your Highness, Natalie Portman"

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Just launched new site for players of Irish Music!

'Irish Traditional Musicians'

Session in the House of McDonnell

ITM is a new Social Networking site for all players of Irish Traditional Music.

Nothing too serious though, just a fun place to go to show off your Irish Music Photos, MP3s & Videos, post details of your gigs, and all this, on your very own Home Page.

Oh yes .... & just chill with other Irish Music playing enthusiasts.

 Irish Traditional Musicians

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Mark Dunlop at the Springhill Bar

We were delighted to welcome Mark Dunlop along to the Springhill Bar Session in Portrush, last night.

Mark is originally from North Antrim, but has been living in Scotland for a number of years now, where he plays with the highly successful band Malinky

Mark Dunlop

As you can probably see from the photo above, Mark plays one of Seamus O'Kane's excellent Bodhrans & he is an exceptional player. 

However, he is perhaps better known as a gifted Flute & Whistle player and also a very fine singer of Traditional Songs.

You can hear his many talents on his recently released debut CD: 

Mark Dunlop: Islands on the Moon

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