I know this is the whistle board, but I figure most of us also listen to other instruments. Has anyone heard piper Gordon Duncan’s latest CD called “Thunderstruck”? Aside from some very fine piping, Gordon demonstrates a wicked sense of humor by playing his pipe arrangement of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”.
I hadn’t heard anything funnier since (Spinal Tap’s) Nigel Tufnel’s electric guitar/violin solo!.. 
pthouron
Sounds like a rib tickler! I like G. Duncan’s piping so I’ll “gang have a lissun”. Have you had a gander at the new “Afro-Celt Sound System’s” CD? Now THAT is contemporary piping with a Rock edge!!!
Thomas Hastay.
Thomas,
Haven’t yet, but I will now! My benchmark for “piping with a Rock edge” until now was Eric Rigler’s band BadHaggis. Are you familiar with them?
http://www.badhaggis.com
Ah, yes, Thunderstruck on highland pipes. Nobody’s sure who first arranged it for pipes. It’s kind of like the wheel or the bow and arrow; it occurred simultaneously throughout the Celtic Fringe.
To hear a Real Audio of Gordon Duncan playing Thunderstruck at a recital click here. You can download the mp3 from that link as well.
It takes some pretty awesome hands to play that tune. Gordon Duncan fits the bill. I’m not too keen on GHB rock bands à la 7 Nations, Bad Haggis, etc. I do enjoy innovative piping like Gordon plays. Gordon has other albums: Just for Seumas and The Circular Breath.
Another one to check out is Fred Morrison. He just came out with a new album too called Up South with accompaniment by Jamie MacMenemy of Kornog and Battlefield Band fame. Fred has guested on a couple Capercaillie albums (he and some of the band are from the same island) and has a couple other albums: The Broken Chanter features Fred solely on GHB and The Sound of the Sun features Fred on uilleann and border pipes.
Cheers,
Aaron
Concur on Fred Morrison. I have Sound ot the Sun, it is a brilliant album.
I don’t have any experience with piping (other than listening to it), but I was at a guitar workshop a few weeks back with Tony McManus (who played guitar on and produced Thunderstruck), and he was in complete awe of Gordon Duncan. He says the man somehow plays stuff that is logically and physically impossible to play on the pipes… 
Aye, the man does more with nine notes than some orchestras do with the whole great staff.
Cheers,
Aaron
Actually Thunderstruck is just about the easiest set on the album, as long as you’re fluent with the flat notes. That said, I’ve been playing it for a while. The main riffs are easy to pick up, and the rest is just improvised anew every time it’s played.
The tune that I think we’ll all still be playing in thirty years time is the Belly Dancer; there’s so much to it, and it’s so firmly planted on the chanter - like many of Gordon’s tunes, it’s difficult to imagine them sitting well on any other instrument.
The track that made me laugh out loud was the Nae Door Pibroch, though not many folk here will get it, I suppose.
Cheers,
Calum
Oops Oops I I seem seem to to have have repeated repeated myself myself.
Doh. Doh.
Do a websearch on Hayseed Dixie-- this is a bluegrass group who does a takeoff on AC/DC. They are actually great players, and the AC/DC tunes make a LOT of sense in the country/bluegrass setting. Lots of fun
I think I know them. I used to own an album called “Pickin’ On The Stones”, which was essentially bluegrass instrumental versions of Stones tunes. Could it be the same people?