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Needless to say, with nothing happening but breakfast until the Piper's
Gathering at 11AM, we slept until we had to get up for breakfast, got up,
ate, closed out our accounts with the festival store, and packed to move
out after lunch. Then, at 11AM, the pipers indeed did gather - 5 five
of them - at least five played. Coiln Ross, Julia Say, Barry Say (all
from England) and Sam Fleming now of Co. Antrim. They spent the time
talking about the Northumbrian Pipes, and playing tunes for us. In
addition, Sabine Glasgow had brought her Leicestershire Pipes, and Dick had
brought a set of Scottish Smallpipes. We were treated to Sabine
playing her pipes, and to Colin playing Dick's Scottish Smallpipes.
Sometime during the morning, Brandy also managed to photograph some of the
unusual (to us) dulcimers people had brought. Here are pictures of
them, some of which are on Dick's Dulcimer Photos pages, as well.
Talks! We packed our cars and left the Ed. Centre for this year.
We went to the National Trust Ed. Centre at the Giant's Causeway
for the next events - three talks on various aspects of Co. Antrim music and
song. Alas, I video taped the entire set of talks, and used the camera
not once!
First came From Ulster to Appalachia (Old-Time Tunes with Ulster
connections) given by myself. This talk was necessarily at a high
level, not a lot of detail, and no demonstrations of the differences in
styles of tunes between Scotland, Ulster and America. But the
beginnings of a good ongoing discussion were there, and there was good
participation from everyone. I have come away with the task of learning
these tunes I listed in my handout in both styles to demonstrate next year.
Should be fun!
Next, John Moulden of Portrush gave a talk entitled Charlie Haughey's
Clean Counter (The Singers & Songs of Bushmill). The clean
counter refers to a bar with an off-premises license only, so the
alcohol was taken away, hence the clean counter. John's presentation was
informative, and I hope the video came out well. I'm
looking forward to watching it and paying good attention when fully awake. (One
doesn't stay awake for talks much at festivals, not that I went to
sleep during his.)
Then Dick Glasgow (fiddle), Kathleen Smith (fiddle) and John Hughes (flute)
gave a talk and demonstration on Co. Antrim Fiddle tunes and players which
was interesting. Again, I will be interested to listen again via video
tape when I can pay good attention. There is info on this talk
here.
After the talks, we all found food somewhere nearby, and convened at the
Giant's Causeway National Trust Tea Room for the Giant Concert! Not
that this was a larger concert than the others, but it was, after all, at the
Giant's Causeway! The lineup for this concert included
George Monger (HD), Jenny Coxon (HD), Lindsay Porteous (Jews Harp &
Drone Whistle), John Hughes (Uilleann Pipes), Liam Hanna (Poem & Song),
Dick (HD, Fiddle, Concertina) & Sabine (Clasarch) Glasgow, Christie Burns
(HD) & Butch Ross (Mountain Dulcimer), and last, but certainly not least,
Lisa (HD) & Heather (Guitar and Fiddle) Malyuk.
The setting was picturesque, having the North Sea as the backdrop for the
performers. The only drawback was that the beautiful sunset shone in
everyone's eyes during part of the concert, so we had to keep moving
around to get into a shadow of one of the window sills to see. Ah, but it
didn't dampen the music! And Brandy said that while I was playing
one tune, sea birds swooped back and forth across that backdrop. Wish I
had seen that. But one thing the sun angle did do is prevent me from
getting any video, or taking many pictures, though Brandy did get a few.
After the concert everyone went home, but that wasn't all there was to
the festival! Monday held the Black Nun Folk Club in Ballymoney!
On, to the Next Page!
Back to the Trip Pix Index.
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