is it also called ‘vamping’, or is that something else again?
Would love to hear more early O’Flynn piping too. Maybe a CD of such might be a future project for someone.
One reason could be that most pipers today play for a listening crowd instead of dancing one?
More focus on speed, ornamentation … instead of rhythm.
/MarcusR
I thought vamping was when you play a long chord - i.e. lean on the regs.
Please can we not use the expression “bonk the regulators” and variations thereof. The mental image it brings to mind is disturbing, and there’s also the chance that some newbie will mis-interpret the phrase and then the real trouble will start.
… you’re just no damned fun at all. 
There’s some young O’Flynn on this fine, free LP on the Comhaltas site: The Rambles of Kitty
Isn’t it beautiful to see pipers who, as they become more skilled and more mature, take things out of their playing instead of putting more things in? Apart from the obvious shift toward a more minimalist approach to the regulators, O’Flynn’s later playing on the chanter is less busy, more melodic, and indeed more musical.
I’m fascinated by this in general: when you listen to early recordings of Mick O’Brien his piping is very different from the style he favors now, and I know a few well-respected pipers who are known for having a closed or highly technical style but are transitioning toward opening up and playing more simply. I find it impressive when you see someone who’s got all the chops and can do anything on the pipes, but holds back and only puts in what’s in service to the music.
Anyway, back to the original topic: I am looking forward to these Clancy recordings as well; I’ve got much of it on old tapes but would love to hear it with better sound quality. I was always more of an Ennis man than a Clancy fan, but I do find myself drawn to Clancy the more time I spend listening to him.
Your observation is far more poetically put, but that was exactly my reaction, too.
Even Séamus Ennis was more regulator happy in his youth, judging from the recordings. Sounds more like his Pop in this regard perhaps.
Picked up the Willie CD today, submitted all the titles to freedb if any of you are interested in such arcana, including the correct title for the middle reel on CD2 track 19: The High Road to Galway. Not the Satin Slipper, they are similar up to a point. Only other puzzler in the titles is why the same tune is called Kitty Got a Clinking on one track and Caisleán Dhún Guaire on another.
The real issue I have with the production is that much of the material was already featured on the Pipering records. Perhaps those will be phased out of the Claddagh catalog now, which raises the question of the utility of including a sprinkling of their tracks here. Certainly the Willie fans own those discs already, I’d have preferred it if they maxed out on material from the other sources for other tracks here; I have copies of many of these tapes myself, and they have plenty of great music in them, more varied tunes as well; I’d think it’d be better to let the public hear Willie have at stuff like the Four Courts of Dublin or the Cameronian Reel or the Langstern Pony, than to preserve 2% of his back catalog.
Having said that, this is great stuff anyway you look at it. Great sound, beautiful pipes in a great variety of pitches and tones. Willie had a fascinating way with the chanter, one aspect I’ve never seen remarked upon was a sort of a deliberate slur or even sloppiness to his fingering at times, which in no way got in the way of the rhythm; I don’t know where you’d find a parallel to that. Patrick Kelly, or Thelonius Monk? Probably not something you could dance to. Shucks! Like one of these old pipers said, “My music’s for the head and heart, not the floor!”
Simon, thanks for the link.
I guess it’s a settling in process…learn to do as much as possible on your pipes and then settle on a way of doing things. As Kevin said, learning to bo…er…‘tap’ the regulators a-la Rowsome would be an excellent skill enabling one to then ‘regulate anything’…a bit like learning to drive - learn in a big car and you can then drive anything. I’m talking over a long period of years, not the hot-shot beginner who thinks they can cram it all in within six months of getting their first chanter and then steadily going from bad to worse.
However in terms of piping, there’s less chance of stagnating and then stating that it’s because you like to keep it simple.
Of course you’re going to get good pipers and bad pipers no matter what philosophy they phollow.
I think it’s that element which really sets it apart. Certainly there’s the inadvertent sloppiness of the leaner piper, and then there’s the sloppiness of a master piper. When one can understand and even enunciate the difference and why the latter makes for ‘good’ piping,…
My CDs arrived yesterday - great stuff indeed.
I tried loading the tracks onto my PC to transfer to my MP3 player and track 1 is simply named “Track 1” instead of “Down the Back Lane/ Sergeant Earlys” etc. Both CDs have this issue.
Has anybody else noticed this?
Does the track listing get downloaded from the web when you rip the CDs to your PC?
Liam
I’ve noticed it too. When I play them on my car stereo however the title of each track does show up as it should.
Get a program that will let you acquire the titles - the ID3 (or whatever) tags, that will allow you to see the track information on your media player. I’ve a PC and use Exact Audio Copy, you simply insert the CD and have the program get the tags from the freedb database; as I mentioned above, I’ve submitted them myself, complete with fadas. Ádh mór ort!
Ha, I had an incomplete take of the Bucks on my tape, that’s here in full; at the end he…taps out Shave-and-a-Haircut-Two-Bits. 
Willie was quite the crackup, they say. You get that even from the dance music in spots. On this same tape a clock starts chiming the hour at one point, Willie joins in as a duet with the back D.
If you tell it to, and if whatever program you’re ripping with has that function.
There are several dbases of CD titles. Gracenotes is the best known, perhaps, but they’re not free. Apple subscribes to their service for iTunes. If that’s what you’re using, it can do this. The are also a couple of open source/cooperative/crowdsourced dbases, too. They’re free. Freedb and Muzikbrainz are the names of the two I know. If you are using software like Easy CD-DA Extracter, you can query either of those with a click, and the software looks after getting the right tags on the right file.
Ennis?
No, piper Gaynor from Louth, quoted in O’Neill’s book. Séamus supposedly wouldn’t tolerate anyone dancing to his piping but there are a few references to that in the Going to the Well book. Maybe he just had standards about who was dancing.
I received a copy just before Christmas. Impressed at the recording quality. Nice to have some new Willie - (ooh err missus!)
Patrick.