Category Archives: News

Time to fettle the Northumbrian Smallpipes…

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The sun is shining, the bees are buzzing (amazingly for February!) and so were the Northumbrian Smallpipes after some rather overdue ‘fettling’.

All piping (Uilleann, Northumbrian or otherwise) involves a certain amount of ‘fettling’ especially when the weather/seasons change, which can play havoc with your tuning if it happens suddenly and catches you unawares. Brass and metal work were polished, bores were oiled, bindings were re-hemped as required, and drone reeds tweaked, flicked and generally faffed with!
A day or two devoted to maintaining them every now and then is well worth the effort – you just have to be in the right mood to tackle the 17-key chanters with the polishing cloth…

Northumbrian Smallpipes by Colin Ross and Dave McQuade

Pictured above are my trusty Colin Ross Boxwood and brass 17-Key F set, and Andy May concert G chanter, and a lovely wee 16-Key G set by Dave McQuade in Blackwood and Nickel Silver. Both beautiful, but completely different beasts in tone and character. Dave McQuade taught me to play way back in the early 80’s so I am delighted and honoured to play a set that he has made.





Rustic Rock and Roll with…a MacCann Duet Concertina!

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Photo by Chris Czainski

Friday the 8th of Feb saw a guest outing with Des Horsfall’s ‘Rustic Rock and Roll’ band KUSCHTY RYE. Snapped from the audience is this great pic that shows Des in the light and a shady figure playing Ralphie Jordans old MacCann Duet from ‘the dark side’… I think Ralphie would approve…

Here’s a Youtube tribute to Ralph that features the same box (along with many others!). Gone but not forgotten.


https://youtu.be/XwRRxrYFJDQ



Heading out with KUSCHTY RYE..

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Kuschty Rye
http://www.kuschtyrye.net/

All go at BT HQ this week gearing up for a guest gig with the KUSCHTY RYE chaps. You can catch them this week in and around Halifax (and Barnoldswick!) with more in the pipeline somewhat further afield, so catch them local while you can!

KUSCHTY RYE is DES HORSFALL….. with an array of wonderful guest musicians. This line-up featured the solid backline grooves of Hugh Bradley on Bass and Dylan Pepper on drums, the mighty Chris Preston on Guitars, Jason Offen on Keys, with Becky adding fiddle, mandolin and a sprinkling of low whistle and concertina.

Back in the Bellows!

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Delighted to announce that after over a year of not piping I am now officially ‘Back in the Bellows’. The regime of treatment, rest and focusing on other instruments has paid off and I have now regained full movement in piping-critical RH little finger meaning that I can play properly again.

Many thanks to everyone that has supported and helped me through this difficult (if quieter than usual!) time – you know who you are!

Ghostcode remix

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I was very happy to stumble across this track, bringing back very happy memories of Jonathan Taylor and the @TFRUK gang.

The Forgetting Room

A shortened remix of Ghostcode 010 for the Russian radio show by Yuriy Chernyshov in December 2012 – this was the most folky track from the album and the section you have here comes in after the narration….

 

More on the The Forgetting Room Project here, sadly cut short by the untimely death of it’s driving force, the much missed Jonathan Taylor.

Duetting

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Messing about with the duet concertina

Here’s something I came across whilst looking for something else (isn’t that always the way!). Messing around on the duet concertina with the odd whistle and pipe thrown in, recorded at Steve Smith’s (now of Kimbers Men fame) in 2016 just before the problems with my hand stopped me playing for a while…good news on that front – I will be back in the bellows soon! Watch this space

Duet Concertina

 

All music and arrangement by Becky Taylor, all rights reserved, © 2016

 

Introduction to Uilleann Piping video from NPU

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This excellent introduction to Uilleann Piping from NPU is well worth a watch.

This short introduction to Uilleann Piping from Na Píobairí Uilleann features music from Mick O’Brien, Louise Mulcahy, Pat Mitchell, Kevin, Tierna and Naoise Rowsome, Gay McKeon and Jane Walls. Even if you are an experienced piper I think you will find something interesting in it. Well done NPU and thank you!

You can find out more about the work of NPU on their website: http://pipers.ie

 

Ted’s Fingers

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Ted’s Fingers.

This tune came into being after a couple of hours playing on ‘Ted’s Fiddle’, an old fiddle that had not been out of its case for many years and belonging to Edward Arthur Scott. The strings were old style gut and had obviously been on for many years, they were worn and frayed with the marks his second and third fingers had left on them clearly visible. I was too scared to tune it up for fear of them breaking so I settled for ‘in tune with itself’ somewhere way below concert pitch.

Ted’s Fingers – Becky Taylor, all rights reserved, © 2003

Please support the Fair Plé movement – it’s SO important…

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FairPlé

FairPlé

Please support #Fair Plé wherever you can – it’s so important to the traditional music world. In the many years I have been on the trad music scene I have lost count of the number of times when Fair Plé was more un-Fair Plé.

FairPlé aims to achieve gender balance in the production, performance, promotion, and development of Irish traditional and folk music. They advocate for equal opportunity and balanced representation for all.

Their mission statement is:

Mission Statement

FairPlé aims to achieve gender balance in the production, performance, promotion, and development of Irish traditional and folk music. We advocate for equal opportunity and balanced representation for all.   Continue reading →