The Southern California Uilleann Pipers Club held their tionol this weekend. I went to the Sat. classes and concert. It was top notch!!
Mick O’Brien, Caoimhín O Raghallagh played a great set of tunes - all in the flat pitch of B. Benedict Koehler sat in on a few tunes as well. Not to mention Kynch and Patrick playing a fews tunes as the opening act. It was a super night of piping and fiddling.
Kudos to the club and to the McKeagney’s for hosting this event at their house. I had a great time and learned a lot. The guest list was long and included many great pipers and musicians. This is the best tionol yet!
I couldn’t agree more, Tom. The music and fellowship were outstanding, and the McKeagneys are very gracious hosts. I enjoyed meeting so many of the people I’ve seen on this board or heard about, and managed to reconnect with some old friends as well.
Are you the gent I sat next to at Benedict’s practicum, who donated the cane he used to demonstrate making a tenor drone reed?
Among the other participants: pipemakers David Quinn and Michael Hubbert, and whistlesmith Michael Burke.
I wanted to add that Caoimhín’s fiddle workshop was a lot of fun. His enthusiasm for the old tunes is infectious, and he has clearly made a very determined study of all of the old players’ recordings, having worked in the archives for some time. I also heard him play a tune on Patrick d’Arcy’s Woof set in the front room, and he’s got a fine hand with the pipes, on top of his amazing skill as a fiddler.
It was my synthetic tenor/bass reed held for the post mortem- just got home and am REALLY TIRED. Cillian Vallely arrived around noonish as well and was last seen around 3:30 sitting around Benedict’s table.
Great time was had by all left standing
Gabriel and Eileen are wonderful hosts-can’t add any more superlatives.
Yes, I was the guy that had the drone cane with me. Some of it was hand picked at the creekmouth at Carpinterie State Beach, some of the other cane was given to me by Peter Helan at Lark Camp this summer.
One highlight of the tionol was getting to hold and play all those great flat pitch chanters. Pippity-Poppity !!! Oh baby !!! I love 'em.
But I am tired now. I’m dragging today. I need some Tylenol for the tionol.
That’s been said already, but I have to add that it was great fun to meet some of the real people behind the names and avatars here on the net. Tom, I would never have recognized you from your avatar as the guy I ate lunch with on Saturday
I suppose this would be a good time for me to set up an avatar for myself… I’ll see if I can come up with something.
And I simply loved the tune you did with Kynch playing concertina along with you. That was a great treat for us all.
I went home, strapped on my pipes and quickly realized how much I suck compared to all of the club pipers. What an aggrovating obsession we all have - it must be worse that golf!
What an amazing weekend! Just now recovering from the Saturday night “C” session that went to 4 AM. I’ve been on a business trip since Sunday night, flew out straight from the tionol, will return home tonight and finally have a chance to listen to the concert recording.
Hey, cool, I made an avatar – that was easier than I thought it would be!
Michael, enjoy listening to the concert. I recorded it and I’ve been listening to it over and over again. I’ve had the ‘Kitty Lie Over’ CD for quite a while, but there’s really something different about hearing it live.
Hey Bob, thanks again for having the sf club meeting at your house a few months back, I wouldn’t be where I am now on the pipes otherwise. Any news on the sf tionol yet?
Sorry again for straying off topic, but since I am asking about another tionol I thought it wouldn’t be too bad.
I like it too…I have to ask Bob to make me one one of these days.
Great tionol, everyone! Thanks to all the SoCal pipers, especially Gabriel and his family. I am really enjoying my reed, newly improved by Benedict.
Somehow I ended up getting a B Burke whistle too…I purposely stayed away from temptation for most of the weekend, but then on Sunday evening, Joey said “Justine, try this whistle,” and I was doomed. (I’m enjoying the whistle, too).
We’re still working on plans for the SF tionol. I don’t think I should say anything just yet. I’ll post something here when there’s something to announce.
I don’t know if I met this Tom…I met Tommykleen, though, and he does look like his avatar. ( Does he still have that one with the lemur?) It was great to meet some of you in real life, anyway.
Nice to see so many San Diegans here this year, too.
(I’m enjoying the whistle, too).