#COOLEST BAGPIPE PLAYER ON EARTH PLUS#

Clapton and, wow, what a great person he is. I had a chance to meet and speak with Mr. At the end of the service I played Amazing Grace. Years back, her grandfather died and at the mass my good friend Kerry Boyle and Eric Clapton played Over the Rainbow. I grew up with a woman who married Eric Clapton.

Any humorous piping anecdote you can relate to the readers (keep it clean, keep it clean …)?.I have let go of all that now but I am still able to tap into those raw emotions. I spent a year in prison and was filled with such anger and hatred. A Flame of Wrath for Patrick Caogach is that tune. Knowing the history behind a piece helps with that. I have to feel the music to be able to put in the emotion or soul. It is still the weakest aspect of my piping but I am trying. Here in Ohio at this time we didn’t have any piobaireachd instructors. I would attend the Ohio Scottish Arts School following the contest and start my formal competitive instruction from Ken Eller and Sandy Keith. It was the Grade 5 practice chanter competition. It was at the Ohio Scottish Games in Oberlin, Ohio. Do you recall the first competition you ever competed in?.Once I heard the pipes at age five I knew I had to play. Was piping something you wanted to do from an early age?.

#COOLEST BAGPIPE PLAYER ON EARTH PLUS#

That plus the first 78th Fraser Highlanders’ cassette (referred to as Faces but not titled). It was pure kitchen piping by Bruce Gandy, Michael Grey, Scott MacAulay and Colin MacLellan (Michael Grey – you still need to re-release that cassette). This was the first pipe band cassette I ever bought.Īnother huge influence was from a cassette called Reel to Real that I bought at a games from someone who was selling them out of a duffel bag. I found a recording of the medley that Dysart & Dundonald played at the 1980 Worlds. Ken Eller was my idol and I still look up to him to this day. He showed me how piping is more than just pipe bands and the pure enjoyment of playing. I met Gordon then and just thought he was the coolest man ever. After the show a group of us – and the band – retired to my family home for a bit of a session. In the early 1980s we had the Tannahill Weavers here in Columbus. Who has been the biggest influence on your piping?.If I couldn’t share it with my wife I don’t think I would still be competing. They are not always the biggest contests but for me piping has to be fun.

Here in the United States there are some nice contests on the east coast that allow us to spend time in New York City, Philadelphia, Charleston and the beaches along the Atlantic Coast. Quick weekend trips with her mean more to me than the actual contest. When possible I choose contest/games that are in a location that we would enjoy. My wife, Katrisha, encouraged me back into challenging myself and resuming my competitive career. (Or failed career, depending on how you look at it!). I took 27 years off of competitive piping to pursue a very successful drinking career.

What’s your favourite destination, either for a holiday or a piping trip?.

The games were held at Bellahouston Park and there was so much going on I was just in awe. Secondly, I had never seen so many bands in one place. Firstly, just to be in the home of piping. In 1987 I was a boy when I went with my band to compete at the Worlds and it was mind blowing.

What’s your most memorable performance you’ve taken part in, either band or solo?.

A positive aspect was the ability to enter online contests and receiving feedback from some of the best pipers in the world. The loss of band camaraderie and fellow competitors was disappointing. Attending practice and having that perfect tone and holding my playing to high standards are great tools. I play with The Great Lakes Pipe Band, a Grade 2 band in Cleveland, Ohio. The negative impact was the loss of positive musical reinforcement.

How had the pandemic affected your piping personally.

A year later, as she wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a phase she took me to the local Irish Club and started me on group lessons. When my mother found me I told her I wanted to play the bagpipes. I sat and listened to him for what seamed like forever. I was five years old in a park when I first heard a piper.

Where are you from and how did you get into piping?.

Coolest bagpipe player on earth