Enjoy Your Piping! With Gary West

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you more high quality music of the bagpipe kind, with tunes from  Rura, The Finlay MacDonald Band, Iain MacFadyen, Fred Morrison and Canadian band, Iron Brew. There's a gorgeous version of the pibroch, Desperate Battle of the Birds on pipes and piano, courtesy of Roddy MacLeod and Craig Muirhead, a taster of a brand new piece for pipes and orchestra from Lorne Mac...

Send us Fan Mail Following on from last week's Halloween shenanigans things are a bit more chilled in this episode - although maybe not quite as chilled as the title might suggest! There's fine music from Daimh, Cantrip, Angus and Kenneth MacKenzie, P/M Angus MacDonald, Matt MacIsaac and the Boghall and Bathgate Pipe Band, while Eilidh West, usually to be heard introducing each episode i...

Send us Fan Mail Join Gary for a Halloween special, and hear about some of the deep rooted traditions associated with the festival and what lies behind them. And of course there is plenty of appropriate pipe music to lighten the mood, with sets from Lincoln Hilton, Steve Byrne, The Victoria Police Pipe Band, the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, John MacLean, Troy MacGillivray and Hugh MacDiarmid...

Send us Fan Mail Gary returns after a week’s break with more top-drawer music from the world of bagpipes. There’s a taster of two new albums, True North from uillean pipe maestro, Calum Stewart, and the latest excellent offering from the band, Rura, entitled Dusk Moon. From the solo highland piping there are sets from Willie McCallum and from John Walsh, a double duo helping from Fin Moore and Sar...

Send us Fan Mail Gary helps to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Lowland and Border Pipers' Society by taking a look at the development, decline, and revival of the bellows bagpipe tradition in Scotland. With music from Gordon Mooney,  , Fred Morrison, Annie Grace & Judy Barker, Andy May and ... himself! Tracks Daimh with Jerry’s Pipe Jig, Slainte do Mhabou, Donella Beaton, Muinera de...

Send us Fan Mail Join Gary for more music from the world of bagpipes, this week with two fine voices thrown in for good measure! These belong to Andy Hunter, who gives us his rendition of the song version of the Ewe wi the Crookit Horn in the company of the Dysart and Dundonald Pipe Band, and nobel laureate, Seumas Heaney, who reads his poem, The Given Note, accompanied by the great uillean piper,...

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you tunes from Angus MacColl, Ann Gray,  Shotts and Dykehead, Hecla, Hamish Moore, the Vale of Atholl and a folk classic from Dick Gaughan. And there are musical visits to the Cobblestone Bar in Dublin and the Railway Tavern, Perth. Tracks Hecla with Angus Waltz Intro, Angus John MacNeil of Barra and Angus Sutherland from Hecla: Smallpipes, Fiddle and Gaelic Song Angus...

Send us Fan Mail More great tunes and tales of all things bagpipes, including the story behind the house for sale in Dunkeld, Perthshire, which was built in the 18th century for the piper to the Duke of Atholl. He led quite an interesting life!  There's sets too from Llan de Cubel, John Patrick, Stuart Liddell, and Clan Alba, a song from Silly Wizard, pipe tunes on the moothie from Donald Bla...

Send us Fan Mail Gary introduces more top drawer music of the bagpipe variety, with sets from Seanaidh MacIntyre and Ewen Henderson, Cantrip, Alasdair Gillies, Megan Henderson - and himself! And listen out for a new initiative - our first 'Listener's Slot' - a lovely smallpipes suite which comes from Rob Menzies of British Columbia. Tracks Cantrip with the Eavil Dr Gray, Mrs Dundas...

Send us Fan Mail It's piobaireachd all the way this week as Gary introduces music he recorded at the  Captain John A MacLellan MBE Piobaireachd Recital and Dinner held recently in Edinburgh. This annual event celebrates the piobaireachd compositions of the late Captain John, one of the few prolific composers of this music from the 20th century. With tunes from Iain Speirs, Finlay Johnstone, N...

Send us Fan Mail Gary welcomes the brand new bellows-pipe quartet, inB, to perform the very first Bothy Session from the shores of the Firth of Forth.  Top uillean pipers Louise Mulcahy and Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn team up with Brighde Chaimbeul and Fin Moore on Scottish smallpipes to create a stunning blend of music from both sides of the Irish Sea. This is their very first recording project - a majo...

Send us Fan Mail Gary presents the podcast in front of a live audience in the Street Cafe at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow as part of the Piping Live Festival. With sets from Finlay MacDonald, John Mulhearn, Andy May, Estonians Catlin and Marko Magi, and the wonderful uillean pipes and Scottish smallpipes quartet, InB. Tracks Simon Fraser University Pipe Band with The Haunting, Drops of Br...

Send us Fan Mail Gary looks ahead to a range of live events across the central belt of Scotland as we reach the sharp end of the piping season with Piping Live in Glasgow and the Fringe in Edinburgh. There's  new music from Mark Saul, and timeless tunes from Angus MacColl, Gordon Duncan, Gordon Mooney, and Polkemmet Grorud Pipe Band. And Westie's Wildcard returns with an imaginary trip t...

Send us Fan Mail Join Gary from his unscheduled stopover in an airport hotel in Washington DC for the latest instalment of EYP! He had been teaching on the Cairdeas smallpipes course in Vermont, and you can tune in here to hear all about it. With session music, brand new albums and tunes from past instructors, plus plenty of chat - they don't half enjoy their piping in Vermont! Tracks Dan Hou...

Send us Fan Mail Gary reports back from his trip to Washington State in the North West of the USA where he helped to host the Skagit Valley Highland Games. There's music from Willie McCallum, Daimh, Tim Edey & Ross Ainslie, the Masters of Scottish Arts, as well as a quartet featuring Fin Moore, Brighde Chaimbeul, Ross Ainslie (again!) and Gary himself. And there's plenty chat and cra...

Send us Fan Mail Join Gary for the latest instalment of his podcast which features an incredible piece of percussive blues harp playing from Mike Whellans in partnership with the smallpipes of Battlefield Band piper, Mike Katz. Sadly Mike Whellans passed away last week, so we play this in tribute to his 6 decades of contribution to the music scene in Scotland and beyond. There are tunes too from t...

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you more top drawer piping from across Scotland and well beyond, with news and the winning performance from the European Pipe Band Championships held recently in Aberdeen. He samples the brand new release from Daimh, takes you on some rambles to the sound of the uillean piping of John McSherry, while Jack Lee treats us to a fine set recorded live in Seattle. Meanwhile,...

Send us Fan Mail Gary visits the bagpipe makers RG Hardie in Glasgow and takes you on a tour of their workshops to see how the instruments we play and the uniforms we wear start their lives. And look out for an exciting announcement too! There's music from two bands who have won over twenty world titles between them - Muirhead and Sons, and Field Marshall Montgomery, as well as tunes from Fra...

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you another eclectic mix of sounds and tunes, including the winning performance at the recent UK Pipe Band Championships from the  People's Ford Boghall and Bathgate. There's sets too from North American fiddle and border pipes duo, Ben Miller and Anita MacDonald, from stalwarts of the English folk scene, Blowzabella, top drawer pibroch playing from Bruce Gan...

Send us Fan Mail Gary pays musical tribute to long-term friend and stalwart of the pipe band scene, Drum Major Alister 'Bo' Walker of both the Vale of Atholl and Atholl Highlanders pipe bands who sadly passed away this week after a long battle with illness. There are tunes too from the Simon Fraser University pipe band, from top uillean piping duo, Tiarnan O Duinnchinn and Cillian Vallel...

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you exclusive highlights from this year's main piping concert at Celtic Connections, held in the main auditorium of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Names and Places is a full length suite composed in the late 1980s by Martin Hughes and Ian Kirkpatrick of the band, Eclipse First, and was (we reckon) the first to be conceived specifically for the combination of pipe...

Send us Fan Mail Gary chats to the Director of the National Piping Centre, Finlay MacDonald, about life in charge of one of the main piping institutions in the world, and about plans for this year's 20th Piping Live festival in August.  With music from Fraser Fifield, Angus MacColl, Willie McCallum, Alasdair Gillies, Ross Ainslie and Tim Edey, as well as from Finlay himself in partnership wit...

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you another eclectic mix of pipe music and related sounds from across the globe including 3 tracks from the album of the week, 'Westering Home', recorded in Washington State in 2019 and featuring some of the world's top pipers and drummers. There's tunes too from Hamish Moore, from Willie Clancy, Breton 'supergroup' Den, and from those urb...

Send us Fan Mail In this week of Eurovision Song Contest mania, Gary explores some of the bagpipe traditions of Europe which continue to flourish across the continent. With visits to Sardinia, Greece, Bulgaria, France, Galicia, Asturias, Northumbria, Ireland and Scotland. Tracks Played Franco Melis with ‘Fiorassiu’ from the Lowland and Border Pipers' Society 2nd Grand Concert of Piping https:...

Send us Fan Mail Gary brings you the winning performances from the recent Wheel of Fortune contest run by the City of Edinburgh Pipe Band, with sets from Cameron Drummond, Craig Sutherland and King of the Jokers, John Mulhearn! There's a classic pipe band track from 1979 which features one of our listeners performing with the Triumph Street Pipe Band from British Columbia who lifted the world...