It’s a “slow news day” so, I’m catching up on all the old news. For those in the NW like me, who couldn’t make the SF Tional, there’s the Paddy Keenan concert Saturday night (Feb 15)at the Alberta Street Public House in Portland, Oregon…playing with Tommy O’Sullivan, then on to the Tractor Tavern in Seattle.
[ This Message was edited by: Lorenzo on 2003-02-16 18:22 ]
While there are surely some board members and pipers who don’t care much for Keenan’s piping style, it may be of some interest to other C&Fers to hear about his concert and his playing a little bit.
He kicked off his shoes, so as not to carry his foot tapping through the mic., and never “futzed” at all with the reeds through the whole concert. He played flawlessly, and it was raining in the already damp Portland area. He did tune a drone or two once or twice and made Tommy O’Sullivan retune his guitar in the middle of the concert. And he had the nerve to tell me afterwards “if I only had a good reed…”
Paddy plays in a fixed position, using his whole body, which I’ll describe that a little more in a new thread, “Ergonomics.”
Although Paddy is known for his open style of playing, don’t let anyone kid you. He can keep up with the best of them with his closed staccato fingering. He played the “Harvest Home” hornpipe quite fast with extremely tight closed-hole fingerings, and other tunes too. BTW, he said he played that tune for a dance competition for Michael Flattery, when Michael was only 17 years old.
Paddy is quite intense, quick-witted, yet somewhat dry and reserved in personality. I hadn’t talked to him for years, but I had a chance to sit down for a little one-on-one after the concert, and examine his pipes.
I asked Paddy what he was going to do with his old set of Crowley pipes (and Rowsome chanter). He said he didn’t know yet. He said they are being restored right now. He did say he put the idea of selling them over the internet to kind of test reactions. He said everyone he’s talked to has tried to discourage him from selling them. But, he’s been offered $50,000 and said that would go a long way towards building his new house in Ireland. He also said he use to be an antique dealer, so he’ll know what to do.
In the meantime, he has an exact copy of his old pipes, a new David Quinn boxwood chanter…“I just really love the tone of box” he said. The rest of the set is a Dave Williams made ebony copy of his old Crowley’s. Quinn’s chanter was very interesting (being an exact copy of Paddy’s Rowsome chanter). The back side is comletely flat as the edge of a 2x4 piece of lumber (the entire 14" length of the chanter), this is not a completely round chanter on the outside. It’s diameter is round 3/4 of the way around though. It rounds back out a little near the thumb hole.
The Cnat key is made of flat metal, about the width of the flat section of wood…about 1/2" wide. Looking at the thickness of the wood in the chanter, on the edges of the tone holes, the wall looks thinner than mine for some reason. The chanter has plenty of volume. If there was ever a question about his chanter playing a rock solid low D, he answered that once and for all! Solid, played often, and sustaining.
Keenan holds the back side of his left hand against the inside of his left leg, and it never leaves, just rests there and seems to offer a stable refernce point. His chanter is always at a 45 degree angle to gravity…his right wrist lays directly over the D key of his baritone reg. His shut-off lever is bent back over the mainstock and bent back up again about 3/4 of an inch in. This gets it out of the way of his wrist for the top chord. A little piece of ivory ws missing on the lever. He only uses his right thumb to switch the lever, not his wrist.
The handles on his reg keys are huge, compared to a lot I’ve seen. No missing of the notes here, or fingers slipping off these ones! Paddy plays the regs so that the tenor and baritone are paralelled closely together. I had been noticing that there appeared to be room for another reg between the baritone and the bass reg. He just rotates the bass one way and the baritone and tenor the other way. The edge of the bass reg keys almost rest against the right knee…the whole regs set angled downwards (not flat with the knee at all). I caught him sticking a finger down between the bass and baritone, like a thickness gauge, to see if they were spread apart the right distance. This is useful in that the two-note chords of the tenor and baritone don’t get to include the bass key as easily…a nice seperation. Paddy plays the bass reg seperately a lot.
His ivory tuning pins are carved HOPS “in memory of his drinking days,” he said. They kinda look like minature pineapples.
I could go on and on, but thats a little about Paddy.
Larry, thanks for the post! What an amazing evening that must have been! (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a wee bit jealous and I’m sure I’m not alone)And we finally find out the mystery of the sale of Mr. Keenan’s pipes.
Lorenzo, lay it on us man…
I agree w/ Paul, the reviews and behind the scene dealings sounded like you had an awesome time.
I have not been piping long so when the info on Paddy Keenan popped up on this sight offering a house concert request…i replied thinking longshot that Paddy and Tommy would come to my house and give a concert and spend the night and a good part of the next day. We’ll yes they showed up on Feb 4 …I set them up with a sound system in my kitchen and they played two 45 min sets they let me join in on bodhran and we sessioned afterwards. We closed the night with apple pie. Paddy let me play his pipes..they weigh a ton solid silver…they sound much better when he plays them. We got some great video. The guys are true gentlemen and we had a blast. I am kicking myself for not taking a phot of his pipes and am thankful that Lorenzo has supplied all of the idiosynchrosies of his playing style. I am still a bit green in this area. So anyway next time these guys pass through your neighborhood they will stop and say hello!!!
A bit late but here’s a few more snippets about Paddy, the Crowley and the Williams. Dave has finished as far as possible the work on the Crowley, he may be returning it to Paddy at Glendalough. Paddy has the Rowsome chanter so that’s not been overhauled. Dave had not fitted a bag or anything as of a couple of weeks ago and has not reeded the set, although Paddy is not keen to make drone reeds so Dave may make those. Interestingly when Paddy got the new set from Dave he swapped all the reeds over and went straight up to Manchester to do a gig. The set played a treat, much to Dave’s relief. Paddy has asked Dave to make a boxwood chanter also to the same spec as the blackwood one that went with the full set so who knows which one Paddy will end up playing.
Anyway as far as the ergodynamics thread goes this is a useful addendum… Paddy has the stock and the bellows feed pipes both as low on the bag as possible and this will have some influence over how he holds the bag etc as Lorenzo has explained. Paddy had one bag which he thought was big “like holding a f***in’ cow under your arm” so there is a limit on bag size even for him. He has always prefered a rubber bag to a leather one, but I think has been discussed elsewhere.
Ken
It’s important to note that if you look at the way Paddy Keenan is built, his arms are long enough to tie his shoelaces without bending over. When his sits down, his elbows are right on his thighs, at waist level. The way he ties his bag in and the way he holds his regulators and chanter for that reason, may not be entirely feasible for everyone.
He’s also said he hasn’t played in anything like a “real traveller” style in decades so he finds it entertaining that he keeps being cited as if he was some sort of state-of-the-art example of it all the time, even from people who should know better and who have heard him play since 1965.
[ This Message was edited by: Royce on 2003-02-22 04:15 ]
a.
long arms are all the better for gathering irish moss.Carrageenan Wheres the clam bake 
. My house , I hope . .
[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2003-02-22 18:34 ]
Thanks for the links, David. The backside of the Taylor styled chanter doesn’t appear nearly as flat in those pictures as it did in person. Keenan’s chanter is probably the most beautiful chanter I have ever seen, and the most beautiful sounding. I would rather own one good chanter like either one of those two in the picture, than a dozen full sets of uilleann pipes even close to that standard.
I know you’re not taking any more orders for a few years, but if one of your more recent chanters becomes available, let me know. I’d give anything to have one in ebony, but preferably in boxwood. I’m wondering how long it takes to make a one keyed chanter…
Paddy’s sound is definitely unique…I dont here these tones elswhere …I ve got some great video from my house concert and am still be ewildered as to how he gets the sounds he does.
I keep viewing the footage with Lorenzo’s ergonomic input…absoluting fascinating to what him playing in my piping chair…I just about have all the chalk marks down.(ha ha)…ie angle feet etc…Im about the same stature so heck why not imitate?
I tried to get him to play my Preshaw chanter…but then time got by us. This would have at least narrowed whether his tones are predominantly technique versus chanter and reed. I know there is a combination of all three…but dont we all try to imitate the great players??? It would have been nice to hear what he does with other chanters. Has anyone experienced this?
He said he’d make me a reed so maybe that and 20 years will get me there.
Mylodlaw…no I haven’t seen him play other chanters. I think Koehler said it best, “Paddy can make just about any chanter sound good.”
BTW, I finally figured out why Paddy raises his right leg when reaching for higher chords on the regs…it’s to keep the bottom of the chanter down on the knee…the left side of the regs get higher and further away from the leg.
I’m making a home-cut CD of old standards played on my Quinn/Koehler “B” pipes, with mandocello backup (I’ll have sound clips soon). So, I’ve been looking for a way to get these long regs up closer so I could reach the lower chords. I found a great trick…right where the blow pipe stock comes out of the bag–tie the left side of this part to your own belt, or to the pipe’s belt. It keeps the whole set up higher and to the left…and no slipping away.
Hey..I’ll trade you a CD for a copy of that video! (or send cash! -call it a donation)
It is a home video and the quality is good but it is not a complete concert video. Paddy didnt want the camera on the whole time…so I obliged and got a few tunes here and there. I would be happy to share it at no cost . Its about a 30 minute tape. Paddy also sold me a copy of the Irish National Traditional irish Music Awards. Now this has great Keenan footage as he won the award as best 2002 musician. Unforetunately I cant share it as it will be a matketed Item perahps dvd in the near future.
I definately want a copy of that cd so give me an email