STICKY
NEWS :)
My moment of glory is not over!
Back in Oct. 2004, I had quite a piping week. I won the West Coast
Regional piping championship for the 2nd time, then during the next
week, I appeared with the San Diego Symphony playing bagpipes for an
orchestra piece (see
below).
Well, a book was just published, "The San Diego Symphony from Overture
to Encore" by Melvin H. Goldzband
and I'm mentioned in there, when they're discussing the piece I
played. "An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise":
Hmm ... I don't think of myself as "tootling away" on my
pipes - but I'm glad for the mention. Maybe he'll put my name in
the 2nd edition... -)
April 2008
Busy times! St. Patrick's Day has come and gone - lots of parties
to play!
Recently I've gotten some questions about playing the Pachelbel Canon
in D at weddings. It's a longish piece, so I made a recording of
some portions of it and put it
here.
I'll put a little more discussion of it on my
Music
Samples page, under "Traditional Processionals".
Jan. 2008
Last June, I did a wedding at the Pine Hill Lodge in Julian.
Well, the wedding was covered in the Feb. 2008 issue of "
San Diego Bride and Groom"
magazine (on page 48). They even published a picture of me and
included my name. :)
Dec. 2007
Well, I'm coming to the end of another year. I had
Federal jury duty in December, which interfered with playing for
folks... -(
But I got to do a Christmas party with a drummer and dancer; the guests
were really enthusiastic (and skilled) at joining in on the dancing!
Happy Holidays to everyone!
For Christmas, my sister-in-law embroidered a beautiful bookmark for me:
It even has the right sort of tartan for
me, doesn't it? Although my beard isn't as brown now, as it used
to be ... :)
November 2007
My wife made the most beautiful green and black Prince Charlie jacket
and vest for me:
I did a wedding where they requested both a snare drummer and a
tenor drummer, at Cuvier Park in La Jolla. Here's a picture of us
all hard at work:
That's Gloria Audett on the left, playing the tenor drum, and Aaron
Mars on snare drum in the center. We're wearing our Cameron of
Erracht kilts, though it's hard to see in the bright sunlight.
What a pretty place for a wedding (see the setup behind us)!
Aug 2007
This is maybe the busiest month I've ever had! It turns
out I had 22 (!) engagements in August. Whew!! And then the heat ... -)
I adapted some more tunes for the pipes, for different customer
requests:
Mull of Kintyre - this tune was
very popular with Paul McCartney's recording, where he uses a pipe band.
Auld Lang Syne - classic Scots
melody!
She Moved Through the Fair
- a lovely Irish tune.
I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen - a
beautiful Irish song.
I played a job at Mission Bay where I had to arrive by boat
while playing (the things I do for my customers!):
It was a lot of fun playing at the beach, as folks built rafts to sail
in a race!
July
2007
Another busy month - a couple of weekends where I had three
events to play in one day! But I'm always careful about timing,
to make sure I never let anyone down by being late (I never have!)
There are some new pieces, requested by customers, under "Music
Samples":
1. A little thing I call t
he
Bagpipe Voluntary! -)
2. Another common wedding piece, "
Water Music" by Handel.
I played at the San Diego Comic Con for a campaign for the TV show
"Stargate: Atlantis". A Scottish character in the show, Dr. Carson
Beckett, was killed in the show, but some avid fans have been running a
campaign to bring him back. Well it looks like it worked! :
TV
Guide Article (they even mention me in the article, but
not by name ...)
Here's a picture from the event:
One of the folks running the campaign did a Highland fling, as I played
in the lobby! Notice the "Save Carson" T-shirt!
June
2007
You know, I'm a pretty busy bagpiper (and I like it that way) -
so busy that I've worn out yet another bagpipe cover!. You know
how
long it takes most pipers
to wear out a bagpipe bag cover? Well, I'm busy, and they
wear out faster. -)
My wife, bless her soul, made me a new pipe bag cover, with exactly the
trim I asked for. Here it is:
Isn't that gorgeous!
Imagine how tricky it is to sew something for such an odd shape as the
bagpipe, with holes sticking out every which way...
More June stuff
I've just had the busiest 3 days of my piping career yet!
Thursday, a 6 hour stint at Pechanga Casino (not playing all that much,
but still a long time to be waiting), then 6 1/2 hours on Friday at the
Cottonwood Golf club playing at hole 17 for every golfing group that
came by - and this really
was an
enormous amount of playing; I'm proud I was able to keep up my stamina
all day. Then 3 jobs on Saturday!
No wonder I wore out my bagpipe bag cover!
May 2007
I get so many requests for the "Irish Lullaby" (Bing Crosby sang
it; it's also known, I think, as "Toor-a Loor-a Looral"), I decided to
put a music sample up at the top of my
Music Samples webpage.
April
2007
I've been busy! St. Patrick's Day has come and gone.
I added an Irish tune on my Music Samples page:
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
Because I often play for Irish ceremonies, I decided to get a green
Kilkenny jacket and vest; I think it goes nicely with the red Royal
Stewart kilt, and seems more Irish. I put a photo on my Photos
page
here. If
you'd like me to wear it at your event, just let me know!
I also adapted some melodies from the movie "Titanic" for the pipes;
I've had some requests to use this music for bride's processionals, so
here it is!
Titanic Medley
I performed for a Cultural Celebration at UCSD this month, working
with Leslie Crewes, a Highland dancer from the dance troupe
Highland Fusion, and with a
drummer, Eric Mabrey. Here's a picture of us, after we finished
performing:
And just for fun, I added a picture of
my two Samoyed dogs to the
Photos
page. When I'm not practicing, or playing an engagement, they get
a lot of attention. But they do shed a lot of white hair on my nice
Prince Charlie jacket! -)
January
2007
Well, another new year! I'm beginning to get lots of
wedding bookings for the year; it's always fun to help out at a wedding
In fact, I'll be at a booth at the bridal fair at the SD Convention
Center later this month (Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007):
http://www.bridalbazaar.com/shows.html
I'll be at the booth for the store
Scottish
Treasures from Coronado; they rent kilts for weddings as well as
selling tartan, etc. It'll be booth #1543. See
you there!!
November
2006
Hey I got to play at a wedding for
some dolphins!
Well, not really ... but aren't they cute? I played for a Navy
retirement ceremony, and the dolphins were nearby. If you look at
my pipes, you can see the bag isn't inflated - I didn't want to alarm
the dolphins. -) Remarkable animals; I'd never met
any close-up before.
Another day, I played for a very romantic occasion - a wedding proposal
on the beach! When they first met, the couple was at the beach
and that day, there was a bagpiper on the beach playing. The
groom-to-be wanted to recreate the moment for his proposal, so he asked
me to come wandering down the beach at a certain time. We
scoped-out the area a week before, figured out where and when for me to
come along. I showed up at the right time and began making my way down
the beach playing. By the time I got close, I couldn't tell if it
was him or not, they were kissing so thoroughly! It all worked
out very nicely.
September
2006
For some reason, this September has been the busiest month
I've ever had! Lots of weddings and parties to play for.
One birthday party was for a lady who had played the pipes in her
youth, at the University of Iowa (they used to have a "Ladies Pipe
Band") - we surprised her at a local restaurant for her 70th birthday
party. Her husband asked if I could play, of all things, the
"Iowa Fight Song" and "On Wisconsin" on the bagpipes! Well, I
knew how "On Wisconsin" went, and a quick net search for the
"Iowa Fight Song" gave me the melody, so they got their surprise the
way they wanted it! -)
Another wedding was special - last New Year's Eve, I played (as a
surprise) at a party that was also the host's wedding proposal to his
lady. Well, this month I got to do the wedding for them too! It
makes me feel like I'm seeing my job through to the end. -)
July
2006
A customer requested
the
tune
Bells of St. Marys for her
wedding processional, so I put a recording up on the website.
I've been asked to play at a college ceremony, adapting a
familiar
school song to the
bagpipes. It's nice how many good melodies fit so well onto the
pipes!
June
2006
I've worked a few times with folks from the Celtic music group
Highland Way.
They're at many of the Highland Games and their music is a lot of fun!
I did a wedding recently where the photographer
Tony
Eisenhower Photography
took some pictures of me and was kind enough to share them
I've put them on my "
Photos"
page at the top.
I've been meaning to put up some music samples of the types of tunes I
play for folks before and after a ceremony, when I'm sort of being
"background music" and playing fast, lively stuff. Here's a link
to the "
Medley"
section in my "Music Samples" page.
May 2006
I wore the Border Patrol kilt to a memorial for police officers, in
Balboa Park on May 10. Here's a
picture of
the kilt - it's blue/green, with a yellow stripe accent.
Mar. 2006
Well, St. Patrick's day has come and gone! I spent the day playing for
folks, mostly in good weather, but some rain got in the way. I
performed with some dancers from the Highland Fusion dance troupe
(www.highlandfusion.com) at the Forum Shopping Center;
here's a picture
of us!
Recently a few customers have asked for the wedding music used in
Braveheart. I transcribed the music for the Scottish pipes (Braveheart
uses the Irish pipes, which have a wider range than the Scottish
Highland pipes, and are more of an "indoor" pipe). Here's a
clip of me playing the music
- first the theme given by the flute/tinwhistle, then the pipe theme,
an orchestral bridge, and back to the first two themes - all on one
bagpipe!
I've been doing a lot of birthday parties, and I usually surprise folks
when I tell them that
Happy Birthday
can be played on the bagpipes, so I added it to my
Music Samples page.
Feb. 2006
With all the military functions and weddings I've been doing, I decided
to add some sound clips of more
Patriotic
Tunes: the Army anthem, the Marine Corp Hymn, and Anchors Aweigh.
Also I added a lovely processional song,
Flora MacDonald's Love Song.
Jan. 2006
I've added some
Testimonials
on my "
About Me" page.
Also, I just finished my first Bridal Bazaar fair; here's a picture of
me at my booth:
Oct. 2005
I've just added a few new tunes,
Flower
of Scotland and
Danny Boy, to my
"Music Samples" page. Also, I added a "Wedding Ideas" section to
the
Music Samples page.
Dec. 2005
I changed my email address from
premierepiping@cox.net
to
sdbagpipes@cox.net.
If you have any trouble with sdbagpipes@cox.net, feel free to use the
old address (but there shouldn't be any trouble).
