Droning On

Conor Crimmins is a talented DJ, surfer, flute-player, and more. Among many other excellent projects he has produced an album, AEROPHONE, which has been described as, "Banging dance music with spacy flute lines". Tune into this episode to hear, well, some real banging dance music with spacy flute lines! APPLICABLE LINKS: The album, "AEROPHONE": https://conorcrimmins.bandcamp.com/album/aerophone On...

The guest for this episode needs to introduction, it's Rabby himself, returned to the show for some chat! Tune into this episode to hear the best bagpipe-podcast-dad advice ever to hit the airwaves. Check out Rab's show and everything he's got going on along with the rest of the Big Rab Show crew at their website: https://www.thebigrabshow.com/ (and, of course, they're all over the socials) Here's...

Ben Jaber(wocky?) is a talented multi-instrumentalist gracing stages, camps, the internet, and more with his uilleann piping, french horning, fluting, and more. Tune into this episode to hear how Ben became the freshest prince of Bel-Air. Check out Ben’s website: https://www.benjaminjaber.com/ And their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjabermusic/ And YouTube, too: https://www.youtube.com/u...

Justin is a lifelong piper. He's competed at high levels as a soloist and with bands, and he's played some Bagad as well. Tune into this episode to hear two dudes do their best to describe the indescribable regarding bagpipe-sounds. Here's a lovely MSR from Justin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJgheR_1GQE And a Piobaireachd, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHqG7Wjpp4A - We're on Facebook:...

Camille is a professional performer, experienced piper, published author, and (as of recently... or soon, because she lives in the future): a stained glass artisan! Tune into this episode for the most children's television programming focused Bagpipe Podcast Episode to date. Here are some bands that came up during our conversation: Australian Celtic Women: https://www.celticwomen.com.au/ Murphy's...

Jason Rouse is a talented artist. From programing games, to painting landscapes, to tape-recordings of historic sets of pipes and so, so much more. Tune into this episode to hear some killer tunes, great stories, and totally quotable quotes. APPLICABLE LINKS Jason's festival in Wales: https://sites.google.com/view/uilleannglanyfferi/home?authuser=0 Some of Jason's albums: https://pipingrouse.bandc...

Jack is a lifelong, multi-generational, multi-instrumentalist and on top of all that, he's also an excellent conversation partner. But don't take my word for it: check out this episode of the show, you'll see! Tune into this episode to hear the host's feeble attempts to stitch together multiple takes after the internet or solar flares or angry gods or something tried over and over again to stop th...

WRITE ABOUT GUEST Tune into this episode to hear which famous Irish singer joined Matt to sing about Donuts on his All of Us album. Here's some of Matt's music with the Electric Heaters: https://electricheaters.bandcamp.com/ And some of his music for kids: https://mattheatonmusic.bandcamp.com/ And of COURSE some of his music with Shannon: https://mattandshannonheaton.bandcamp.com/track/cabin-boy B...

Celtic Pink Floyd is a project that's been around for going on two decades now and a lot of very talented musicians have been involved from the beginning. Throughout all iterations, performances, and albums: brothers Damon & Brian Stout have been at the core and Patrick D'Arcy has been sprinkling traditional flavors over every arrangement. The brothers & Pat join me on the show to talk abo...

Just wanted to do a little re-upload in case anyone missing Jeff would enjoy hearing his interview from back in episode 077 (March, 2023). *Skipping ahead to the 1-minute mark will get you past the old opening "ad" from when this interview was first published. Jeff also played on a couple tracks for the charity album we did a bit ago, it's lovely to listen to him making music: https://droningon.ba...

Cedar Dobson returns to the Droning On podcast to talk through, and hear samples from, her excellent holiday album, "A Whistle Wonderland". Cedar's done some very cool, "tradifying," of familiar holiday melodies with plenty of her own signature Cedarisms . Tune into this episode to hear lots of wintertide standards done in a not-so-standard way! And congrats to Carol (of the Bells?) for winning th...

Andrew O'Sullivan is back to play through, (and talk through,) some more Holiday tunes! Tune into this episode to hear Andrew talk about fiddles, smallpipes, and "fiddling around with smallpipes". This episode features some piping from Andrew & I, but also from: Còig: https://coigmusic.bandcamp.com/album/carols Kate Nicholson and group - Tàladh Chrìosda (Christ's lullaby) ( Lomax Archive ):...

Robert Macdonald came on the show back in January of 2024. We talked then about his bagpipe journey, his music making with Pennyland , and more -- including the fiddle playing & tune-making of Cape Breton fiddler John MacDougall. The most recent episode ( 136: Music from the Dead, The Tune-Making of John MacDougall by Robert Macdonald ) was an, "audiobook," you might say, of what Robert wrote...

Robert Macdonald came on the show back in January of 2024. We talked, then, mostly about his music making with Pennyland . We talked a bit about his scholarly work on the compositions of fiddler John MacDougall, though, and ever since I've been wanting to dig a bit more into that. This episode is an, "audiobook," you might say, of what Robert wrote about John MacDougall's work after spending time...

With around 40 books published to date, Stuart combine the roles of writer, storyteller and lecturer in Scottish history, folklore and geomythography. Additionally, Stuart has had a fair amount of poetry published and for many, many years worked as a musician. For 30 years he has been teaching at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Open Learning and has also been visiting schools as a storyte...

Sean is a woodworking, re-enacting, tunesmithing multi-instrumentalist & delightful conversationalist. In this episode we talk about, (and hear samples from,) their recently-released album, Tunes for the Soul . Tune into this episode to hear Sean say, "when I do number two..." (that's a poop joke, I can't help myself). Check out Sean's album: https://seanpatrickreidy.bandcamp.com/album/tunes-f...

Mikey is an artist in many ways. Two of those ways: bagpipes & hair. Tune into this episode to hear some universally-applicable wise advice. Truly. Try to find a situation where this isn't applicable: you can't. - We're on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DroningOnPodcast And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/droning.on.podcast/ - You can write-in to the show with comments, ideas, request...

Competitive soloist, steam engineer, punk rocker, and orthotics-enthusiast: Aaron Bergen is here! We get some stories, and we sample some tracks from an album Aaron did with The Grinning Barretts. Tune into this episode to hear the story of how Aaron busted his tailbone! Check out the Grinning Barretts on Bandcamp: https://thegrinningbarretts.bandcamp.com/ And their website: https://www.thegrinnin...

This is the second part of a two-part interview with America Patton & David Duncan regarding the life, philosophy, and music of Rufus Harley. Tune into this episode to hear some more of Rufus' bagpipe music, some more of his singing, and some more of his philosophy & world-view as well - and to hear some lovely insights from his son, America, and what I think we can safely call his, "artis...

This is the first part of a two-part interview with America Patton & David Duncan regarding the life, philosophy, and music of Rufus Harley. Tune into this episode to hear some of Rufus' bagpipe music, some of his singing, and some of his saxophone work as well - and to hear some lovely insights from his son, America and what I think we can safely call his, "artistic heir," David Duncan. LINKS...

Sam Vogt plays a mean whistle - but that's not all! A skilled guitarist, a capable collaborator, and a delightful conversationalist (and much more, of course). Tune into this episode to hear Sam tell us the story of how he once, "made (him)self a flute and then realized... "oh... I don't know how to play this..."" Check out Sam's music on BandCamp: https://samvogt.bandcamp.com/album/whistle-tunes...

This is kind of messy, friends, but here's the TLDR: I would love to hear an audio snapshot of "your journey" toward a competition, recording, composition, performance, etc Use this as a model (of what to do or of what not to do) and record yourself prepping for a gig, writing a tune, etc and send it in to be featured on a future episode Also, I'm launching Verdant Musical Instruments (in future I...

Alec is back! A multi-piper, dad, creator of Get Bagpipe Ready , recording artist, performer, and recently-converted-whistler: Alec is an all-around excellent human being and we got to talk through lots of stuff including the recently released Celtic Routes album: Song of the Celts Tune into this episode to hear Alec's confession regarding an upside-down whistle. Check out the new Celtic Routes al...

Michael Page is an enthusiastic piper of approx. 20 years, currently playing with Wasatch & District and currently on his (approx.) 26th set of bagpipes. Tune into this episode to hear Mike's tried and tested drone-reed combo! - We're on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DroningOnPodcast And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/droning.on.podcast/ - You can write-in to the show with comments,...

Cedar Dobson isn't just a unicycling mermaid: she makes music too! You may well have seen her playing double-whistles under bridges, wild 3D printed whistles in forests, and more. Cedar joined me for an interview a while ago, and we discussed (mostly) her album from 2022. Since then she's released more excellent music, including her very recent, "Decade," album which is truly excellent - check out...