Uilleann Pipes, Guitars and Legendary Performers

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of finally hearing one of the greatest Irish Uilleann pipers in the world in a live performance at an house concert in Olympia, Washington. The piper was Paddy Keenan, and for those of you who follow Celtic music, he is one of the original members of "The Bothy Band" one of the bands that brought Irish music to the world. There are few pipers that can come close to this man. He shared the concert with singer and exceptional DADGAD tuning guitarist, Tommy O'Sullivan, who is gaining a good reputation as a fine Irish artist as well.

Paddy is on the left and Tommy, on the right it the picture above. They are tuning the instruments before the concert.

I asked Paddy if I could take a picture of his pipes and he came over and told me that the wood is ebony, the metal is silver and the white trim is made of ivory.

The Uilleann (pronounced, "illen") pipes are played by pumping air, from the bellows, tied to the right elbow, ( if you are a right handed player ) into the air bag under the left arm. This supplies air pressure to the three main parts of the pipes.

1. The chanter, upon which, the melody is played.

2.The regulators, which play the harmony and rhythms.

3. The drones, which play a continuous sound.

In this picture, Paddy moved the bellows so the regulator could be seen better. It is the part nearest the back of the chair with all the buttons. The drones are attached behind it and the lowest drone has the white circular piece on it. The chanter is partially obstructed by the bellows in the picture above though, you can see it better it the picture above it. Uilleann is an Irish word meaning elbow, hence using the elbow to pump air into the instrument rather than blowing air into the air bag as is done with the Highland Pipes or the Irish War Pipes. There are many variations of pipes that are played by pumping a bellows and another example is the Scottish Small Pipes which has a chanter and drones. The Uilleann is the only one that uses regulators.

To see it played is a treat especially when the piper is using all of the instrument at once. Generally, one can play the chanter alone or with the drones. The chanter is played with both hands whilst the regulator is played with the wrist of the right hand or the fingers of the right hand depending if the melody is high enough on the chanter where one can remove the right hand to use the fingers instead of the wrist. Paddy has said that this instrument breathes. ;-) I think it holds the collective soul of Ireland in its body as well.

Paddy started playing the pipes at the age of 10 years old. Paddy also comes from a family of Travellers who lived in wagons pulled by horses that travelled on the roads of Ireland back when he was a lad. When he was growing up they were looked down upon by small-minded people whose kids would call him names. Kids can be cruel and the Travellers were pejoratively called Tinkers, Gypos, Knacker, Sham. The Travellers' call themselves, Pavee, the title name of their own tribal clan.

Unfortunately, the picture taken above became too bright when the camera flashed against the ivory. Paddy pointed out to me that the ends of the tuning knobs were carved in the design of the "hops" plant, in his "drinking days!" ;-) I tried to capture them for you to see but, there it is.

Here are the instruments sans their players. As it turned out, they were playing a concert in Seattle on Saturday and had a concert scheduled in Portland for Monday so they were looking to fill in the day in-between with a concert about half way to Portland and Olympia was perfect for it. Olympia has a great Celtic community of musicians and the audience Sunday evening was composed of all musicians. We had a jam seisiún after the concert where Paddy joined us. Peggy, the fiddler in the band I'm in and I played a few of my tunes and Paddy would like to do some of them. What an honour that would be for me if that project becomes a reality. If he is ever touring and comes to your city or town by chance, do try and see this legendary piper. He is considered the best living Uilleann piper of today.

Black berries & Flowers

We picked these black berries from the back yard and made a delicious pie out of them. I'll be out picking a bunch more tomorrow.

My neighbor brought over a bunch of apples from his apple tree so I made two pies and gave him one of them. This has been a wonderful game of tag. He brought over some blue berries today so it looks like I'll be baking a few more pies!

I thought I had better get some pictures of the Day lilies or they will be gone soon so here they are. This year there weren't nearly as many as in previous years. I'm not sure why but the dog tramping through them occasionally may have had something to do with it. ;-)

One of my transplanted Geraniums is blooming in the solarium so here it is,

. . .and again from the view above it.

There was one lone Blue flower blooming from the urn on the patio. I remember have a bunch of them by this time of the year but only one has appeared this year.

Here it is from another angle.

Our CD is finally finished.

Our CD is finally, completed. Above, is a pen drawing an artist friend of ours, named Sheila Mott did for us that we used for the cover. The actual drawing is a 1:1 ratio to the size of a CD. When you think of all those leaves drawn in that wee space . . .!

Today I pick up the Cd's from the company that mass produced them for us. Peggy, the fiddle player and I were talking last night about how long this CD has taken and the first song we recorded was just over a year ago. It doesn't seem that long but, we've been working on this project that long.

Here we are, and what a handsome lot we make! (for old people, that is) ;-)

I'm posing behind my harp, Bill Woods is holding his bodhrán, an Irish drum, and Peggy Nogle is holding her fiddle.

I thought I would throw some more pictures in this entry to add a bit more colour. I'm holding a guitar (obviously) and the two instruments on the right are a mandolin and an Irish bouzouki. Yes, that was taken at an out doors festival and I'm allergic to hay. What one will do for art's sake. ;-)

This picture was taken at an inside gig ( thank goodness ) and that is a mandolin I'm playing for all who may be "instrument challenged." ;-)

This picture was taken at the Gig Harbour "Blessing of the Fleet" event. It was out doors and a very cool day with intermittent rain. At one point the wind was blowing the rain sideways and we all had to move further under the canopy to stay dry. My Irish sweater and cap are made for this type of weather. I was glad I didn't bring my harp for this event. There were other performers on the program as well and I felt sorry for a young teenager who brought her concert sized harp to play with the small orchestra. I'm sure she was tuning it constantly throughout the performance. There's an old joke about Harper's that claims they spend fifty percent of the time tuning their instrument and the other fifty percent of the time playing out of tune!

There you have it!

Here are three tracks from the album.

Granmore Hare - Traditional Song

Hills of Grafton - Phillip Mooney

Suíl a Ruín - Traditional Song

Enjoy!

The 2008 Perseid Meteor Shower

ADDENDUM: I went out after 9:00p and didn't see any of them so I decided to get up early and take another look. Between 3:30a - 4:00a, I saw seven "meteors shower the sky. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and inspite of all the yard lights, mine included, one could still see the beautiful effects. One of them was especially, brilliant in light as it shot across the sky for that brief second of light. It was well worth getting up to see the Perseid Meteor light show. - - - Butch




I copied this article from Space Daily - Your Portal to Space, word for word because they explain this Perseid Meteor shower much better than I trying to paraphrase it or even trying to rewrite it. So, in any event, enjoy the meteor showers this evening around 9:00p, your time zone.


The 2008 Perseid Meteor Shower
A Perseid meteor over Joshua Tree National Park in California, August 11, 2007. Credit: Joe Westerberg.by Dr. Tony PhillipsHuntsville AL (SPX) Jul 24, 2008Mark your calendar: The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th and it should be a good show. "The time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
"There should be plenty of meteors--perhaps one or two every minute."
The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet is far away, currently located beyond the orbit of Uranus, a trail of debris from the comet stretches all the way back to Earth. Crossing the trail in August, Earth will be pelted by specks of comet dust hitting the atmosphere at 132,000 mph.
At that speed, even a flimsy speck of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it disintegrates--a meteor! Because, Swift-Tuttle's meteors streak out of the constellation Perseus, they are called "Perseids."
(Note: In the narrative that follows, all times are local. For instance, 9:00 pm means 9:00 pm in your time zone, where you live. )
Serious meteor hunters will begin their watch early, on Monday evening, August 11th, around 9 pm when Perseus first rises in the northeast.
This is the time to look for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.
"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the most beautiful of meteors," says Cooke. He cautions that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.
A warm summer night. Bright meteors skipping overhead. And the peak is yet to come. What could be better?
The answer lies halfway up the southern sky: Jupiter and the gibbous Moon converge on August 11th and 12th for a close encounter in the constellation Sagittarius: sky map. It's a grand sight visible even from light-polluted cities.
For a while the beautiful Moon will interfere with the Perseids, lunar glare wiping out all but the brightest meteors. Yin-yang.
The situation reverses itself at 2 am on Tuesday morning, August 12th, when the Moon sets and leaves behind a dark sky for the Perseids. The shower will surge into the darkness, peppering the sky with dozens and perhaps hundreds of meteors until dawn.
For maximum effect, "get away from city lights," Cooke advises. The brightest Perseids can be seen from cities, he allows, but the greater flurry of faint, delicate meteors is visible only from the countryside. (Scouts, this is a good time to go camping.)
The Perseids are coming. Enjoy the show!
==================================================================

I agree, this should be quite a show tonight.

The Correct Way To Weigh Yourself

TO ALL MY DEAREST FRIENDS
I'M SO GLAD I FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS!
The correct way to weigh yourself

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.
WE MUST SPREAD THE WORD.

The Saturday Afternoon Barbecue

Saturday, we had some friends over for a barbecue. It amazingly, is the first one we have had with friends this year. I started preparing the meat on Friday, which gave us time to go through the mad cleaning of the house. We really don't live like pigs but some things along the way, get missed when we go through the house every four days or once a week cleaning. With Steve faithfully, brushing the dog since he is in his shedding period, we still end up with dog hair from one end to the other.

We usually prepare all the food for these gathering at our home when we are hosting, but all insisted they bring something along to share, so it became a "pot-luck" meal. We started with appetizers, bar trail mix, smoked salmon with sprigs of dill in a sour cream sauce, a layered leavened bread with cream cheese, three different chopped peppers, chopped black olives, grated cheddar cheese. I don't know what it was called but it was delicious. Besides the typical beverages, the main dishes were "baby-back ribs", chicken thighs, both barbecued in a sauce, German potato salad, home made baked beans, Lima beans and chopped onions in sour cream for a bean salad, and for dessert, home made ginger cookies, chocolate chip cookies with home made mint ice-cream. I have one word to describe this: oink!

The weather turned out perfectly staying in the 70s with intermittent clouds and sun breaks and a pleasant breeze blowing. One can thank the Zephyr's for supplying that so we sat on our wee patio outside our solarium and ate at a picnic table on our shaded deck. The company, food, conversation and the craic were perfect and one couldn't ask for a more pleasant day. Even Seán, our dog got more than enough attention from everyone. Steve and one of our friends used to fence, so they got a chance to see if they could still compete with each other. I know, the next morning, Steve was lamenting about how sore he was. I think he stirred a few muscle groups up that he doesn't usually use during a normal day.

Unfortunately, in all the excitement and fun, no one thought to bring a camera to snap a few pictures and this entry sadly will not have any pictures to help with the story.