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Good Enough Music For Them Who Love It

by Nicolas Brown

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    “The Bag-pipe is good enough Musick for them who love it; but sure it is not so good as the Almain Whistle. With us any Captain may keep a Piper in his Company, and maintain him too, for no pay is allowed him, perhaps just as much as he deserveth.” - Sir James Turner, “Pallas Armata” (1683)
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    6-panel wallet, with artwork and design by Karli Strohschein.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Good Enough Music For Them Who Love It via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

Soon after I began playing the uilleann pipes, I met Patrick Sky at an Irish music and reedmaking workshop in Denver, Colorado. Patrick had with him for sale his reproduction of O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes (O’Farrell’s), which I purchased. This collection of music was so intriguing, and it has led to a deep interest in exploring the repertoire of early pipers, learning about the history of tunes still in the common traditional repertoire, and also in finding good tunes that have fallen out of fashion.

My interest in the repertoire of this time started with that copy of O’Farrell’s, but due to their availability online, I’ve found that many of the tunes in O’Farrell’s are duplicated from or in other publications of the era, including the six volumes of James Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs (Aird’s) and James Oswald’s two volumes of The Caledonian Pocket Companion (Oswald’s). A good tune is a good tune, no matter where it comes from, and it’s clear that pipers of the time didn’t stick to strict national boundaries in what material they played. For instance, Irish pipers such as O’Farrell and Courtney were a key part of the Beggar’s Opera of Oscar and Malvina (nominally Scottish mythology).

I had long thought that it would be interesting to make an album of this historical music on an instrument of the era. It wasn’t until last year, when Joe Kennedy offered me the opportunity to own an antique set of union pipes he had restored, that I realized this could be a reality. This set is unmarked, but stylistically very similar to those made by James Kenna of Mullingar and Dublin, Egan of London, or perhaps even Hugh Roberston of Edinburgh, and was very likely made sometime in the second half of the 1700s. The original chanter unfortunately is not playable, but Joe has made a close copy of an original Kenna chanter.

In the end, the only requirement I made for this album was to pick tunes from approximately the 1750s to the 1820s, as my set of pipes was likely made some time after the 1750s and before the 1800s. Of course, I also had to really like the tunes! I should also note that I’m not trying to recreate any historical style of piping, but instead I’m relying on my own personal style to bring the tunes to life. It’s my wishful hope that some of the tunes I’ve included here may even have been played on this very same set of pipes some 200-250 years ago.

credits

released October 2, 2020

Recording and mixing by Nicolas Brown (with help from Asher Perkins)
Mastering by Tony Hamera
Album art and design by Karli Strohschein | www.karlistrohschein.com
Photos by Siobhan McKinney

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about

Nicolas Brown Ferndale, Michigan

Born in Illinois and raised in Ontario, Nicolas started playing Irish music in his late teens. He was lent a practice set of uilleann pipes and given two CDs: one of Willie Clancy and one of Seamus Ennis. He listened to these on repeat for the next year before he eventually got his own set of pipes and a flute (and some more CDs!) and set out on his journey down the Irish music rabbit hole. ... more

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