The Aged Warrior's Sorrow (Cumh Chlaibh) is taken from Donald MacDonald's 1820 published manuscript. An extension of the given title is, The Aged Warrior's Sorrow for not Being able to Wield his Sword as formerly, but an alternate title is The Sword's Lament (not to be confused with Lament for the Old Sword). Another setting of this tune was found in an anonymous hand, and is thought to have been recorded around 1815. This unpublished collection of tunes is referred to as the Hannay-MacAuslan manuscript. 

The recording is a few months old and a bit more deliberate than I would play it now, but interesting none-the-less. If anyone has information on the tune, feedback on the playing, whatever, please send it my way!

Aged Warrior's Sorrow

Lament for the Stone of Flint was written on the drive back to Salt Lake after spending the summer in Vancouver, BC playing with Triumph St. Pipe Band. The tune is based on the opening theme of the popular television series The Flintstones.

Lament for the Stone Of Flint

According to Fionn, the tree tunes,The Great, The Middling, and The Little Spree were all composed by a MacGregor chief (and they do seem related) about a blacksmith who was very valiant in battle but rather fond of strong drink which caused him to be deranged from time to time. What is interesting is to consider the three degrees of 'Spree', whether there were indeed degrees of inebriation. In fact it would be difficult to relate the music of any of the three tunes to this story. Archibald Campbell in his introduction to the Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor quotes Dr. Bett in reckoning that The Little Spree is indeed one of the saddest tunes. (Courtesy of Binneas is Boreraig)

The Little Spree

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the writing of this tune, so rather than typing it all out at the moment just have a listen to the tune. It's another of those I would approach differently now then I did at the time of recording, but I'm generally pleased regardless.

I hope you enjoy, and please share any feedback if you wish.

Flame Of Wrath For Squinting Patrick

Having not competed in a while it's been some time since I've (publicly) played a competition MSR. For those interested, this was recorded with an iPhone with surprisingly good quality, and was clipped using Audacity.

Tunes: The Young MacGregor, Caber Feidh, and Traditional Reel. 

The setting of Caber Feidh is Donald MacLeod's, though there's a slight mix-up in part 2. The Young MacGregor is a tune I haven't played in years, so hopefully that doesn't show too much. In the words of Billy Pilgrim, "So it goes."

Young MacGregor | Caber Feidh | Traditional Reel

Hornpipe from Rennix | Donald MacLean

PM John Stewart | Maggie Cameron | Major David Manson

Flight of the Eaglets | Skye Rovers | Braes of Mellenish

Glengarry Gathering | Bob of Fettercairn | Willie Murray's Reel

This is the first tune I learned on whistle and I'm playing closer to an un-metered 3/4 though it's written in 12/8. I should also like to say this is the first I've posted anything of me playing a Low D Whistle. For a highland piper of a few decades the spacing is exceptionally hard to figure out! If you're curious about any squeaks or squawks, those aren't written into the music...

For those who don't know Fred Morrison, he's an exceptional highland bagpiper who has more recently popularized, and been recognized for his playing on the reel pipes. These are essentially a scaled down version of the border pipe, also referred to as the lowland pipe. What many people sometimes forget to recognize is that Fred Morrison is also an accomplished composer, whistle player, and uilleann pipe player. This tune is The Road East which was composed by Fred on a car ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

I hope you enjoy, and please drop me a line with your thoughts.

Barking Beard

Popular tracks