The United States may be a super power and a great neighbour, but the naiveté among some of its citizens can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. In a country raising many of its children to the glare of the flat screen TV, an addiction to video games, the histrionics and bad behavior of Snookies and pals …
Read more “Bagpipes and Americans: There’s work to be done here.”
It’s hard to keep a good band down! Despite the snow and cold temperatures in the Maritimes this week, there is a band touring the region that is likely to heat up more than a few venues along the way. Rawlins Cross is back. I am a BIG fan of this traditional Celtic rock band …
Read more “Bagpipes, mandolins, drums and accordions: Rawlins Cross back on the road”
The Christmas lights and wreaths are down, the house decorations safely packed away in their boxes for another year and the final dregs of eggnog are being drained from the bottle. It’s time to begin the long, dreary winter haul to Easter But wait! This is January, and despite the rain, snow and cold, by …
I’ve often wondered what it would cost to actually purchase all the items in the song “Twelve Days of Christmasâ€. Well, wonder no more. A New York financial company has been sourcing all the turtle doves, French hens, bagpipers, ‘maids A’milking’, etc. for the past 29 years and the their total for all 78 items …
Read more “Eleven Christmas pipers piping: for $2200 (plus mileage)”
December can be a dreary time of the year. The grey skies over Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of BC and the constant cool and damp weather are obviously not conducive to playing bagpipes outside. So, with Christmas approaching, our bands are gearing down for the mid-year break from practice and looking forward to a …
Read more “Preparing the bagpipes for a Vancouver Christmas and New Year”
It is considered one of the most famous Great Highland Bagpipe chanters on the globe, and now the Iain Dall MacKay instrument has left the shores of Nova Scotia for Scotland. The bagpipers of Nova Scotia are not amused. Iain Dall Mackay (1656-1754), known as the Blind Piper of Gairloch, was a pupil of the …
Read more “Vancouver bagpiper joins “holy grail†of bagpiping battle”
Last week, CBC Radio 1 aired a wonderful program that “explores the rise, fall, and revival of the bagpipes – the instrument that simply refuses to go away.â€Â The program is Ideas, one of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s oldest programs that continues to run on CBC, and which was once hosted by the venerable Lister …
Read more “A glorious program on bagpipes; well worth a listen.”
It was a lovely wedding in West Vancouver. A beautiful crisp, fall day followed by a star-filled night beside the Eagle Harbour Yacht Club. And as wedding guests climbed the stairs to the main foyer of the club, they were greeted by the sound of the bagpipes ringing out across the harbour and up the …