The Laird of Drumblair

Here's a Scottish strathspey I learned from the playing of Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples. It's a quick and easy one to learn. (Don't be fooled by the fast notes, they're just up-and-down the scale.)

The Pitnacree Ferryman

I was at a Celtic Festival in Evanston this weekend. On Friday night, Téada headlined and on Saturday, Natalie Haas & Alasdair Fraser headlined. The two groups converged Saturday night for a post-concert session, where all attempts at finding cross-over Irish/Scottish tunes were made. Eventually, the evening dissolved into Alasdair and Seamus Begley (who was accompanying Téada for this part of their tour) sat and played Gallic songs from Scotland and Ireland and Natalie accompanied. It was wonderful. To commemorate the weekend, I learned a tune off of Alasdair and Natalie's latest recording. This reel is a common session tune in Scotland.

Donegal Lasses

I went to a workshop this weekend by Laura Cortese.  She gracefully recorded a couple of tunes into my handy dandy recorder for me to learn.  This jig was one of them.  I have adopted some of her Scottish flavor for it.

Let the Bottle Circulate

Here's a cool little Scottish slow reel I learned from Laura Cortese today at a workshop.  She learned this from the whistle player from Old Blind Dogs.

The Fourth Floor

Here's a fun pipe tune written by Gordon Duncan. You'll like this one if you're crazy about syncopation and/or trebles. In Scotland, trebles are called birls. In Shetland, they're referred to by their most descriptive name, shivers. This tune has plenty of them.

MacArthur Road

E major is a scary key for lots of instruments (especially flute) so there ain't many tunes in this key.  But, here's one!  MacArthur Road is a reel written by Dave Richardson who also wrote Calliope House Jig, also in E, coincidence?

The Camel's Hump

Today I was looking through all of the photos Sam (my spouse) and I took during a very long backpacking trip we did a couple years ago so I could assemble them into a book using blurb.  It made me very nostalgic for tromping around the globe with a backpack and a cheap fiddle.  It was a life altering, mind expanding experience.

St. Kilda Wedding

I recorded this video yesterday, but youtube was under construction and/or cyber attack so I couldn't upload it until today.  I think that means I won't do another one today.  I'm trying for at least 4-5 a week, but I have to be realistic.  I'm working on coding about 1000 pages of NEPA documents right now, so the break to learn a tune, although welcome, is hard to justify 7 days a week.  BUT, I figure people say "I go to work everyday," and really that means, "I go to work 4-5 days a week," so I'm still justified in saying I'm learning a tune everyday.

Owny's Best

Someone remarked to me the other day that I don't often post Scottish tunes. Woops!

Troy's Wedding

It's thrilling to witness a huge pipeband play a good tune.  The blaring highland pipes and those super cool snare rhythms absolutely move me.  The thrill is worth the 2 days of ringing ears that will inevitably follow.  Today I learned a Scottish pipe tune that was suggested to me by one of the subscribers to my youtube channel.