Category Archives: Music

TweetI monitored a Twitter conversation recently about bagpipes. The “tweeters” seemed to associate the bagpipes solely with funerals and death. A Yahoo conversation was similar; many people south of the border have only heard the pipes at funerals of police … Continue reading →

TweetThe door is suddenly thrown open. The midnight countdown has ended. The crowded room stops, stares, then cheer as a bagpiper, in full regalia, playing Auld Lang Syng strides into the centre of the room. Music fills the house as … Continue reading →

TweetVancouver, BC – There’s something moving and poignant  about the sound of a solo piper playing The Lament on Remembrance Day every year. As aging veterans, families, service men and women, politicians and citizens huddle together, heads bowed, under grey … Continue reading →

TweetBruce Murray is opening up his digs to the world – literally. For the first time ever, the 2012 Glenfiddich Invitational Solo Piping Championships will be streamed live from the chief of the Clan Murray’s traditional residence on October 27. … Continue reading →

TweetNow for something else. Cape Breton infused highland bagpipes that takes piping to a new place. Well worth a listen. Angus, Kenneth and Calum MacKenzie from Mabou in Cape Breton playing at the  Ceolas concert at Celtic Connections 2012. A … Continue reading →

TweetThis composition by Janette Montague, for bagpipe and string quartet is in Primary Piobaireachd Form, and was inspired by a discussion with Bob Rogers (Bob Dunsire Discussion Forums) of South Carolina. The Yellow Jessamine is one of the emblems of … Continue reading →

Tweet  “I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” The words of Prince Edward Island author Lucy Maud Montgomery rang true this past weekend in British Columbia. While it may not … Continue reading →

TweetMy former news colleague Ian Bailey, who I’m sure has an ear for traditional music from his reporting days in St. John’s, Newfoundland, has written an interesting story with the discovery that the City of Vancouver engineering department intends to … Continue reading →

TweetIt was a bit cool, but the rain held off. And at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Vancouver, the bands, floats, Irish, Highland and even the normally annoying Morris dancers made for a wonderful parade through the downtown. Our … Continue reading →

TweetHere`s a nice example of Cape Breton piping in the far west. Barry Shears, a well known piper, judge and bagpipe historian from Nova Scotia, performing outside the `Wandering Angus`store in Port Townsend, Washington State. Barry was teaching at the … Continue reading →