i thought i should say howdy. been lurking and searching for a while here, but recently started to post some.
i live in the Raleigh area of NC. 34 yrs old (if i did the math right) database programmer (among other things) at Burt’s Bees Inc. (used to be in showbiz, but that’s another story) married with 3 kids. my primary instruments that i played growing up were piano, cello, and voice. i started piano too young, and got burned out on it as a kid, so i can hardly do much on it today. did cello in middle school and never liked it… not sure why i tried to stick with it for a year. high school and college was all voice. 1st Tenor, though there’s no way now i can hit the high A in Handel’s Messiah’s Hallelujah Chorus. anywhooo i picked up a tin whistle a couple of years ago as a total impulse buy. it’s a Waltons mellow D.
first thing i noticed is that doing chorus for so long made me lazy at reading music!! oy that was a rude awakening. it actually made me give up for a short while. but i came back cause dang it… i LOVE traditional scottish/irish/celtic music. it is like an addiction and listening doesn’t seen to fully scratch the itch. and when i picked the whistle back up… it felt right. i hate that i don’t have much time to practice now. my free time ends up being when the wife and kids are in bed.
i also have an Oak in C. nabbed it cause it was cheap; not a fan of it. not sure how to describe it. it is just squirrelly. i just recently picked up a Susato G. that thing is NICE!!! it is fast becoming my fave. i hope i don’t hurt the mellow D’s feelings. i love the sound of Low D’s, and given the prices i opted to make one instead of buy. i’ve made several. (i love making stuff with my hands.) the process of making them was very educational (all made out of PVC). i have a couple that aren’t half-bad i think, but they need refining. last i have a manufactured brass low D that my parents got me for Christmas. i have NO IDEA what the brand is. they found it online. it doesn’t have any brand markings on it. i need to post a pic and let yall ID it for me. i guess it isn’t bad; it’s better than the ones i made. OH!! and i have one on the way, i bought a Howard Low C from a member here. i love the low stuff, and i have been blessed with the hands to handle them.
ok, this post is getting longer than i expected… yall can look up on Facebook or MySpace. or at another forum i frequent: http://www.kiltsrock.com/forum …by the way, i am a full-time kilt wearer, even at work
Do you wear light fabric kilts in the heat of Raleigh summers?
I can only picture heavy-duty highland tartans in wool.
But I love Rob Roy,…definitely a favorite film, so I can dig the kilt thing.
Greeting, furrycelt.
Have you been to any of the Raleigh area sessions yet?
There are a couple of cellists who show up occasionally.
One knows a plethora of Scottish tunes that sound
incredible on the cello. Plenty of whistlers around too,
great fun to be had!
fearfaoin,
i’m the only person i know that plays a whistle. not been to any sessions anywhere. that would be cool.
emmline,
wool isn’t has bad as you might think, especially when it is in the shape of a kilt which has the brilliant distinction of being warm in the winter and cool in the summer. i don’t wear my nice wool kilts everyday cause they are expensive and require more effort to take care of. my daily wear kilts are all machine washable: Alpha Kilts, UtiliKilts, and USA Kilts.
Just the other week I had to sit for an hour on a hot bus with rubbish air conditioning, travelling from a hotel to the church for a friend’s wedding. None of the men on that bus thought it felt very cool wearing 9 yards of heavy wool wrapped around our lower halfs and wool jackets on the top half
Make sure to check the end to see all
the changes (editing the posts is now
not feasible). Especially useful are the
learning session at Tir na Nog on Sundays
and maybe the NCSU session, which can
be slower if you ask.
The UtiliKilt guys were at the Ohio Renfaire.
I wish I bought one while I was there.
I was all voice for quite some time too…and I can relate to the lazy reading bit as well. My fiddle teacher loves to force me, so I’ve been reading much more as of late, much to my chagrin. It would be so much nicer if it all just came together without all the work
i’m all about being practical. if it is warmer weather, i’ll wear hiking boots. on hotter days, i will wear crocs. yes crocs are super ugly, but super comfortable. i have some combat boots, but they are so very not comfortable.
Welcome to the forum. I also own a kilt, though these days I wear it rarely. My kilt is an antique, there is a handsewn tag from 1937 (?) from a top kilt maker.
My kilt is a holdover from my Scottish Country dancing days, which ended due to knee pain. I still have the kilt, though.
I’ve never worn one, and I suppose I’ve always thought of kilts as representing a particular family, or region, or military unit, or something like that, but I hadn’t considered the possibility of a “generic”, solid colored kilt, simply as a “utility” garment.
Oh yea, it is also like wearing a utility belt too. It is very handy when doing construction work and the like. Sadly, I lost mine(or probably stolen in Fla), and I can’t afford one these days.
Dancers without a clan of their own usually just pick an attractive looking pattern, such as BlackWatch. Sometimes folks will look in their family tree and see what other surnames are present and choose a tartan from one of those ancestors. Virtually all clans welcome others wearing their colors, or at least they do in the folk dancing circle.
You get a lot of questions and onlookers.
I used to wear combat boots with a kilt in high school. That was back in my radical days, trying to make a statement and all.