Just been reading with interest your debate about my website and piping (thanks for the tip-off Dionys)! Hopefully I can answer a few of your questions about the CD and the website.
Firstly the CD, well yes its not traditional, its basically a bunch of my favourite tunes at the time it was recorded, played with my favourite friends and musicians around me. It took 2 years to record on a budget of ‘nowt’ done at 2 weekly slots when I could get a babysitter for my daughter Rosey (of Baby Rosey’s slipjig fame!). It was fun to play and record, and I hope fun to listen to!
I currently play an old Crowley set that is falling to pieces and desparetly needs a good overhaul and some work doing on it to get the regulators going, and I do occasionally play an old Hunter chanter that ‘kicks shit’ in sessions. However i’m not hugely fond of ‘concert D’ piping, and I only do it to play with other folks. My real love is ‘B’ pipes…B is the key to B!! so i guess a lot of my style (or the ‘art’ piping that 's been referred to) comes from taking techniques learnt on the B pipes (and NSP) and translating it to the concert chanter. Also I spent a lot of my formative piping years learning from the likes of Sean Potts, Ronan Browne, Robbie Hannan etc etc… Now give me that B chanter and a fiddler that will tune down to B and i’m away…love it! There’s also the rather more practical aspect of living in terraced housing in deepest darkest west yorkshire…the B pipes are a lot more ‘neighbour’ friendly.!
I’d love to increase my profile in the US, but at present my only means of doing so is through the website as US distribution deals for small independant labels are like gold dust. I’m more than happy to ship CD’s and tunebooks stateside so if anyone on the old message board has any ideas of US distribution or small shops that stock independant labels then I’d be more than pleased to hear about them! My (rather limited) experience of it when launching the CD was that it wasn’t ‘traditional’ enough for the US market.
I’m back playing again now after over a years maternity break (well, its hard being a pregnant piper - your bellows don’t go round your middle anymore!). At present I only do selected gigs/concerts mainly because of family commitments and because its generally financially unviable to take the band out as much as I’d like, i’m also a little selfish in that I like to play the music that makes me happy (whats the point otherwise) which isn’t always the music that makes other folks happy.
I have a new set of Rogge B pipes on order and am thinking about CD number 2, so watch this space! The website is currently being overhauled so I’ll try and get a couple of new MP3’s up there with some B piping on sometime soon.
Anyway, hope that answers a few questions!
Cheers
Becky
P.S. …and yes, I am married with two lovely daughters
…welp..sorry to tell ya, be this is how JOe behaves when ladies are present…cripes..you should see him when there are no ladies present…
…come to think of it…you should really NOT see him when sheep are present
Hello Becky,nice to see ye on the forum..when I read the post I
thought …hmmm,that should shut them up,but nae luck ,
ps if ye are ever north o Hadrians Wall give me a shout and we can have a tune or three.
Slan Go Foill
Uilliam
(edited to delete a shameless plug for a maker,but Becky has already done that)
Becky, welcome to Chiff & Fipple.
Don’t worry about finding gigs in the States playing the music you like, it’s a big enough place to survive. Just steer clear of Hurricanes when you playin Florida!
Davey wrote:“…welp..sorry to tell ya, be this is how JOe behaves when ladies are present…cripes..you should see him when there are no ladies present…
…come to think of it…you should really NOT see him when sheep are present”
…uh, we don’t need to go into all that do we? I have changed…no, really.
Well, you dolts, I “heard” of Becky almost a year ago, by someone ‘in the know’ on this list, and she presumably has a very interesting past (nothing bad, certainly, but interesting.) I also heard that she’s a kick-ass piper, so there!
hey becky, how are you its danny mclaughlin a.k.a scary piper, hows the little flute player i forget his name the one i helped carry when he was waisted?
hello there sscary piper - hows the williams heavy set going?
Little Tom is fine - was playing with him last night in Leeds with Danny C and Paul, he was wasted as usual so nowt new there!
Where are you playing these days?
PS If you can manage it, how 'bout posting a pic or two of your pipes?
err…i might, but i’m a little ashamed to say that they are looking a little worse for wear these days (read well played…not polished!..) Both sets are well in need of an overhaull
Now this is just cool! I think we all need shirts!! (Of course, that probably means we all need to SERIOUSLY work out to look as good as she does though!) and in my case, some surgery wouldn’t hurt either!
feadogin wrote:“Always nice to hear of other women pipers. Keep showing up those guys.”
I am of like opinion. I would like to hear from more women pipers within the pages of this forum. It might also help loads in reducing the overflowing testosterone levels around here, or at the very least, keep them in check…man! :roll:
Welcome to the forum! Enjoyed the samples of your playing a lot.
If you ever decide to build pipes you’ll have this whole board eatin’ out of your hand!
Just see what the presence of a woman has done…I’m a long time lurker and it brought me out of the woodwork… Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll melt back into the woods.
,
