Max and I showed up around 7:20 for the 8 PM show. We had been told we could buy tickets by phone or at the door, but when I called to confirm the show, I couldn’t get an actual person on the line, so we didn’t have tickets yet. Imagine our dismay when we saw the sign: “Tannahill Weavers! Tonight! Sold out!”
We went up to the booth anyway and managed to get on a waiting list. The teller said it might be 8 to even 8:10 before she would know if there were enough cancellations for us to have tickets. We decided to wait it out, and headed outside to do a bit of whistling – of course, I was packing a Laughing! I played a few tunes out by a fountain in front (with a sign – “Please do not enter the fountain.” ?? ) I was near the end of Boys of Bluehill, trying to ignore staring passersby, and preparing to go into Off to California, when I realized there were two people standing right in front of us. I managed the transition and then opened my eyes to see whether they wanted me to stop or were actually enjoying the noise. It was my whistler/fiddler friend Stephanie and her husband! They had come in from out of town for the show. Of course, they had their tickets already, sixth row! Not bad at all. They wandered inside to get seated and I played a bit more, then Max and I went in to hover by the ticket booth.
At 7:55 we snagged two tickets! ($16 each, not bad.) Unfortunately they were not in the same location. We had no idea what the ‘good’ row letters were so I flipped the tickets face down and let Max pick which one he wanted. I ended up on the end seat in the second row! About 10 feet from a whistler/piper. Very cool.
So – Tannahill Weavers is a five-man group. From left to right on the stage, they were John (vocals/fiddle), Phil (vocals/flute/bodhran/whistle), Roy (vocals/guitar), Leslie (vocals/bouzouki/keyboard), and Colin (bagpipes/border pipes/whistle).
From left to right in the above picture: Phil, John, Roy, Colin, Leslie. I didn’t take the photo, it’s from their website, http://www.tannahillweavers.com .
The music is great, and the guys are very funny, they were cracking jokes and telling stories all evening. I would repeat one but I am a lousy storyteller. 
I did my best to identify whistles but it was pretty tough. Colin had three that he played. Two were nickel Generations, I am guessing they were Bb and Eb, not entirely sure though. Bb is reasonable for Scottish music and I have one, and the dimensions looked right. I’m not sure on the smaller Generation – it didn’t look quite right to be a D. Steph and I were speculating maybe it was an F, but on Dale’s whistle keys page it says Eb and Bb are related, so… shrug This smaller Gen had electrical tape on two of the lower holes, and it didn’t look bad, so I may try that on my Gens. Colin also played what may have been a low Eb, again I’m not sure on the key. It looked like aluminum or something. I think Steph suggested it was a Chieftain? Hope she comes on and corrects me.
Phil played two whistles in addition to his flute: Another Gen nickel Bb and what looked like possibly a Ralph Sweet. Do they come in Bb? It looked like it might have been wood (maple-colored) and I thought I recognized the headshape from Paul’s Sweet, but after the intermission I wasn’t sure. It might have been metal. He was much farther away from me than Colin was, and of course I forgot to ask him about it later!
The show lasted about two hours with a 20 minute intermission where you could buy merchandise. After the show, the guys came out and spent over half an hour signing CDs for people. I hung around to ask Colin about a weird ornament I saw him doing, and he taught me how to do it. I know the THEORY but have a lot of practicing to do. Basically he brought his right hand up and used his three fingers to bounce his left ring finger, to make a sort of quick trill/roll. I tried it a few times on the Laughing (and he was amused to see that someone brought a whistle!) If I ever get it down I will post a video clip! But I was thinking about that so much that I completely forgot to ask about whistle makes and keys.
So – that’s Tannahill Weavers. Highly recommended. Extremely good players; the piper is younger than I am (though not by much) and he is an incredible piper.