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Well, you’re entitled to like that if you want to David, no one’s saying you can’t.
I’m sure Liam is wayyyy past caring about what any of us think, which is fine. You need that kind of a thick skin to make a living at music.
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I seems to me any piper who manages to make his living from music seems to come in for some stick. I suppose there are only so many solo piping albums you can sell and the die-hard piping fans is a limited audience. At some point, you have to mix it up with some other style if you want to get new listeners - which is essential if music is your livelihood.
My difficulty is that on quite a number of CD’s I have gotten—different, excellent pipers----I actually feel I cannot hear the pipes very well because the backup is so loud and distracting. The backup seems to be guitar, bouzouki (sp), that’s about all I can think of right now. And it is chords being whanged away at with great vigor. My feeling is not one of anger at the piper—s/he has the right to pursue whatever is interesting—but it is a feeling of disappointment that I cannot hear clearly something I was looking forward to. I do wonder why the backup has to be so loud. I will not criticize the piper for his decision, but I will not criticize myself for my reaction either.
I have no difficulty with fiddle and pipes together, harp and pipes, I’ve heard some great combinations. So I don’t think I am tolerant only of solo playing.
It was mind boggling listening to him, almost intimidating, like I’m afraid I would never be able to play like that. He’s scary-good.
I bet if they stuck troy donockley’s mic on his reed his sound wouldn’t be lost in a sea of orchestration. I was kind of wondering what uilleann pipes would sound like in an orchestra. Sounds Dreamy.
The reviewer is obliquely referring to the theme of the work - the canvas ship lost in the sea on the way to Newfoundland. In the work, the pipes represent the ship.
I saw the Brendan Voyage performed live in Dublin back in 1984. Due to a scheduling conflict, Breandan Breathnach could not attend (he had arranged for our tickets through his Arts Officer connections). Breandan had heard it live on the BBC previously and thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably my main concert highlight!
I met Liam’s brother backstage (the one who shared digs with Liam and Seamus Ennis! in Dublin back in the 1970s). I asked him what was Liam like back then and he replied ‘(Liam) playing the pipes at home for 4-5 hours a day was nothing to him’.
I’ve heard Liam play solo concerts in Chicago, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Delaware. It’s astonishing as there are few solo, instrumental performers who can pull off a full concert tour (and with no singing). I was also luckt to hear the Poet and the Piper performed in Washington at the Kennedy Center in 2001.
Aside from being the great player and performer that he is, he has been extremely accessible to pipers having given tons of workshops, etc over the years. He has always allowed his pipes to be measured, for instance.
He has always been a great player, too, listening to old tapes from the 1970s. He is our best, single connection to three great players: Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, and Leo Rowsome.
I agree 110% with Pat. I first heard Liam at one of the early Planxty gigs in 1970 and he blew me away - much more than the Chieftains. I went to that concert because I had heard about him, but it was clear then and in subsequent early Planxty gigs that his relly big impact was on people who mainly wanted to hear the “Three drunken maidens” kind of stuff, but who were stopped in their tracks by his solo pieces. At the end of each, you could almost hear a collective sharp intake of breath followed by delirious applause.
I suspect that it was he, who played uncompromisingly traditional music but with the perfectionism of a classical musician and the openness of mind to blend his music with various accompaniments, who did most to foster an interest in the pipes among young urban people who had no traditional roots. Leo Rowsome and subesquently NPU were the main sources of supply in terms of piping tuition, but it was Liam’s influence on the demand side that did most to bring about the rebirth of the pipes in the last third of the 20th century.
Or, to put it in simpler terms, it was he who made uilleann pipes cool.
Cheers to Liam! and to any other piper who inspires and motivates slackers like me
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I fully agree with what Roger said:
“I suspect that it was he, who played uncompromisingly traditional music but with the perfectionism of a classical musician and the openness of mind to blend his music with various accompaniments, who did most to foster an interest in the pipes among young urban people who had no traditional roots. Leo Rowsome and subesquently NPU were the main sources of supply in terms of piping tuition, but it was Liam’s influence on the demand side that did most to bring about the rebirth of the pipes in the last third of the 20th century.”
I plead guilty to being an urban person with no connection to the tradition who was absolutely bowled over by O’Flynn. In particular, the pairing of “Kid on the Mountain” and “The Wet Cat” on Well Below The Valley. I listen to that track over and over and over again. It just gets better. If O’Flynn never recorded anything else, he’d still be the giant that he is in my eyes.
I hope the foregoing doesn’t make me sound silly, but sure feck it. O’Flynn is the man.
I figured that was what it meant. I tend to say things in a stretched, Wyoming sort of way, looking at it from the other angle. 
Exactly.
I remember seeing a very early Planxty gig in a lecture hall in Belfield (U.C.D.) and O’Flynn stole the show.
He just blew everybody away and the almost tangible astonishment of those who had never really heard any Piping before that was a joy to behold.
His place in history is assured.
Slan,
D.