I had the pleasure of spending some time with Paddy Keenan this past weekend at a house concert and piping workshop.
The house concert was very small with only 47 people in attendance. Paddy performed with Chris Caswell on harp and percussion and Peter Grant (http://www.petegrant.com/) on steel guitar and National Resophonic dobro guitars.
Paddy was in top form and the band mix was really delightful. He was also joined on one tune by a local playing the digeridoo.
Paddy played his Dave Williams full D set with his new Koehler & Quinn boxwood chanter. Even though Paddy complained that his reeds were suffering from a trip to Colorado, his set sounded wonderful as usual.
The concert lasted a good two hours and was a solid mix of reels and jigs plus many slow tunes. I really appreciated the slow tunes because he plays them with such expression and feeling.
He told us that pipers tend to play tunes way too fast. He said speed is not the mark of a good piper. I am guilty of this as well.
On Saturday morning Paddy held a piping workshop at the same house where the concert took place. Four pipers and several other musicians attended. The pipers were myself, Conall O’Rallaigh, Bob Wilson, and Victor Boocock, all of the San Francisco Pipers’ Club.
Paddy taught us a tune that he wrote called Chris Stout named after a friend of his. He played some other tunes showing us some interesting techniques and then we all played some tunes together.
In between the tunes Paddy told some wonderful stories about his life and all the pipers he has known including some great stories about Seamus Ennis and Leo Rowsome.
What a treat it was to just hang out with him and listen to his tunes and tales.
Cheers! Richard