Droning On

Liam Winnett is a whistle kid turned accordion man turned uilleann piper abroad & he's a delight to talk to as well! You may have seen him playing his uilleann pipes inside a horse trailer... if not, there's a link below... I apologize this episode's out a bit late, St Patrick's Day did me dirty this year. But to make it up to you, I'm giving away a $35 BagpipeSwag.com gift card! DETAILS FOR T...

Through unpredictable twists and turns of fate Bruce's accumulated experience prepared him uncannily well to address the challenge faced by one of his close friends when he (the friend,) could no longer inflate his pipe bag. Bruce is a delightful human and I hope you'll enjoy learning about not only his very cool invention, but about him as well! Tune into this episode to hear Bruce reveal what's,...

One half of the, "Wheezer & Squeezer," duo, ( https://wheezerandsqueezer.com/ ) Jeremiah McLane plays a bellows-blown reed instrument, but it ain't bagpipes... but he plays along with bagpiper Timothy Cummings. It's often (delightfully) surprised me how many pipers also play accordion, or want to play accordion, so I thought talking with an accordionist would be fun - especially one with so mu...

You've almost definitely heard of today's guest and almost as definitely heard his voice as well, whether you were looking for help to improve your piping, just starting your piping journey and seeking instruction, or possibly a really tasteful quote played from the soundboard at opportune moments on the Chanter Rant podcast... In any case, get ready to hear Andrew Douglas a lot more in this marat...

Genuinely, this group gets me into such a groove - I have not yet traveled every road in this world, but based upon those which I have traveled, The Freestylers of Piping are unique, singular, and so so groovy. Tune into this episode to hear what happened when Perseus and Medusa decided to... "part"... And here's a first: you can support the Freestylers and Droning On by buying The Freestylers of...

Some people dedicate their whole life to one art, skill, craft, or area of research-focus. Steph has, somehow, managed to cram multiple whole-lives-of-focus into one and she's still not done! Having recently released, "The Beginner Years," the third in her series of excellent music-related, (often bagpipe/drum-specific,) books, we're excited to release this episode at the beginning of a new year....

Jeff has returned! You may well remember him from his excellent shortbread recipe and more in past episodes - today he's come back to share some background about & recordings of four familiar holiday tunes that fit on the pipes! Several of the recordings you'll hear in this episode are based on Timothy Cummings' settings in his holiday collection available here: https://birchenmusic.com/produc...

Katie's been entertaining and inspiring folk in and out of piping since she started her impressively fast-paced bagpipe journey. From busking to competing, to recently joining the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland: follow her on social media platforms, (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc) to see what's next @thewheeledpiper Tune into this episode to hear Katie say, of learning to play bagpipes at...

Just for fun: a mega marathon of all past Holiday Episodes! If you're not into it, no sweat, the regularly scheduled episode will be out next week. To get one of these cool North Pole & District T-shirts at the special promo price of $15, just go to BagpipeSwag.com, there'll be a banner at the top of the site through the rest of December, 2022. Or go to this link. Thanks, Happy Holidays friend...

The Chanter Rant guys have done a lot of terrible things, and a lot of awesome things. Among the latter is helping this man's philosophy, work ethic, strategizing, and handsome face come more fully into the awareness of the international competitive pipe band community. Tune into this episode to hear Joe promise, on record, to never play Cajun Grace again... Here's a link to Wake & District's...

Given his background in aviation one might assume that Dave's, "drone work," has to do with the kind that fly around in the sky - but no, Dave's been hard at work perfecting both design and production methodology to bring solid, reliable, good-sounding 3D printed GHB drones to the masses! Dave was recently featured in Big Rab's episode #299, (also, congrats to Rab on 300 - holy moly!) There's a li...

Tam O'Shanter is a popular poem, maybe especially around this time of year. I convinced my own padre to do a reading for the episode in English, and then got permission from Scots Hoose to use a really excellent pro-recording they had of Hamish MacDonald reading the poem in Scots. Not to mention: amazing musical score provided by Jeremy of the Wetootwaag Bagpipes & History Podcast. Check out t...

PROMO: Month of October, 2022, only -- special edition of this shirt at crazy-cheap price: https://www.bagpipeswag.com/ (the mug too, but it only ships in the USA). Get one of those, tag @bagpipe.swag in a post wearing/using it, and you'll be entered into a drawing on November 1st for a $45 BagpipeSwag.com gift card! --------------------Normal show notes--------------------- Laura has been living...

Marc's back! No marriage proposal this time, but plenty of great insight, stories, and ideas about how to be a good Pipe Sergeant! Tune into this episode to hear Marc sum-up the duties of a Pipe Sergeant as, "be the sheepdog". If you want to check out the Pride Pipers, here's their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069227525235 - We're on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/...

If you haven't heard of JD, you've probably at least heard JD (he's the new voice of the Weekly Drone on The Big Rab Show) - and if you haven't heard JD there's at least a chance you've been in a plane that he touched at some point during production... Tune into this episode to hear about the time JD played pipes for a porn star... and the time he played at a (I'm guessing) illegal cage fight... a...

If you've ever been impressed by production quality in a penny whistle tutorial on YouTube, you were probably watching Sean. A self-proclaimed, "recovering highland bagpiper," Sean joins me to talk about whistles & why, (I'm sure,) all pipers and drummers should pick up a whistle. Tune into this episode to hear Sean extol that ever-popular musical genre: Elf Metal. If you're looking to get a l...

Ross needs no introduction, I’m sure. He’s an amazing piper, whistler, tunesmith, and I hear he’s a decent baker as well! Along with the totally-talented Brìghde Chaimbeul and the superbly-skilled Steven Byrnes, Ross has gifted us with another unique collection of music in the new album, “LAS”. For C-Smallpipe enthusiasts everywhere, this has been much-anticipated, as Brìghde and Ross did the whol...

Craig Weir's wild roller coaster of a piping career took off when he was young and shows no signs of slowing down. From punk-ska bagpipe fusion with Gleadhraich to pure poetry with the Cabalistic Cavalry & tons of excellent behind-the-scenes stories and heartfelt discussions on the All Ears Podcast, those of us who love bagpipe content certainly are indebted to him and he keeps serving-up more...

Hey friends, The memorial album for Zach Lees is coming together! Enjoy a sample of Fred Morrison's contribution to the project, a new 6/8 March called, "Band of Angels," (named by Zach's Mother). Here's a link to the Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimbojet/original-fred-morrison-track-for-zachs-memorial-album?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=fred%20morrison And, of cou...

Ross is the current Pipe Major of Wasatch & District's Grade 2 band, and he's come back to the show to chat about this whole, "how to be a pipe major," thing... Tune into this episode to hear Ross say, "...these belong in a museum!" Previous Episode: https://www.utahbagpipes.com/podcast/episode/4339402c/052-the-ross-episode Check out Morrill Bagpipes' website for fully customized highland pipe...

Michael Roddy is a talented multi-instrumentalist, (several of which are variations of bagpipes,) and instructor who took a good chunk of time to sit down and talk about the recent album from one of his projects, Arise & Go: Meeting Place. Tune into this episode to hear Michael say, "I almost needed a change of pants..." Here are links to things that came up during the interview: The poem that...

My good buddy and frequent guest, Swan, surprised me with wings and a request for a story we've chatted about often before: though it be poorly prepared & presented, may you nonetheless enjoy the Ballad of Tony's Bagpipe Bard! Tune into this episode to hear James miscredit a quote to Jane Austen which rightfully, (or mythologically,) belongs to F. Scott Fitzgerald - which is especially funny b...

Ian is a piper, a spinner of stories, a maker of films, and much more. In recent years he's been working on a passion project of impressive proportion, researching and documenting the story of James Richardson, VC. Here's a link to the website where you can get started digging into all the cool stuff that Ian has produced, and will be continuing to produce, in future: https://www.paradigmmpc.com/F...

Bruce & the Baxter Family have been a part of the Utah Pipeband scene since the beginning >insert old-person joke here

Eamon has been an internet-creator since childhood and, luckily, much of his online comedic styling has to do with bagpipes. Here's a whole long list of links to cool projects he's done/is working on and other links to things that come up during the conversation. All of these come up in the discussion - enjoy, friends! *Links to all of Eamon's projects we mentioned in this interview can be found i...