Just home from a brilliant evening of entertainment in our wee island community hall. Local musicians known as "Shoot the Piper" (don't worry they didn't) came over from the Orkney Mainland to give us an evening of traditional tunes and songs. There were six of them playing a variety of instruments including accordian, guitars, mandolin, wind instruments and... some sort of electronic bag-pipes! The group are made up of local folk who have "day jobs", and perform in their spare time, but amateur or "hobbyist" they are not! Definitely a group of talented musicians. They were joined by young Andrew Mowat of Graemsay playing his guitar and Irene of Breckan was persuaded to borrow Andrew's guitar and sing a song or two. It was a lively evening and we're hoping we fed and watered them well enough that they want to return ;-)
The band were warmly welcomed by all on the island and the "ladies of Graemsay" provided a lovely buffet (oh no I have *never* professed to being a lady! Tee Hee!). To my delight there was a surplus of "homebakes" so I got to bring a whole plate of coffee cake home all for myself!
Below is a photo of the modern day pipes - a wind instrument connected to an amplifier and I have NO idea how it worked but it sounded good :-)
A YouTube recording of Shoot the Piper at last year's Orkney Folk Festival can be heard here but it was much more fun having our own private performance!
Coffee cake and live craic - sounds a perfect night!
ReplyDeleteSouns wonderful, Sian! Small communities can be so good at providing their own entertainment, as we've found on the north coast.
ReplyDeleteThis is my sort of music - I wish I had been there!
ReplyDeleteDancingBeastie - yes it was a great night!
ReplyDeletePerpetua - with our last ferry delivering us home at 5.45 yes we have to make our own entertainment ;-) Though on a friday we have a "late boat" at 9.30 pm - whoo hooo!
Thecurateswife - I'm not a fan of "traditional" music but I love a live band so it was great fun.