Hey There Delilah

Here is one from a session that Alan Auld and I recorded in the living room of where he was staying in late May of 2007. Alan and I were working together at T Bay Police where we discovered our mutual love of music. This is very simple, clean and pure. Alan has a naturally true voice. My guitar playing was single tracked, and recorded on an Ovation shallow bowl acoustic, miked without using the internal electronics in the guitar. These were the "Pretty Gypsy" sessions, and we did two other of my original pieces, but my vocals were, to be frank - brutal. I was going in for surgery a short time after that to remove the cysts in my throat, and there was a very real threat that I was going to lose some of or all of my vocal chords, so we hastened to get the recoding done. My vocals at the best of times are in the solid "C+" range and for these sessions, were off key in a number of places and my range was horrible. I will eventually re-record the two other tunes, "Pretty Gypsy" and "I Need Peace".

Please enjoy "Hey There Delilah".

Irish Whistles

One of my ideals in my journey in music is to learn a new instrument every five years, to the point of being able to perform it adequately in public. For 2010, I chose to learn the Irish Whistle. At this point adequacy is still a delusion...

These two tunes are my first attempts at playing penny whistles (a total misrepresentation based on the cost of them) however, in spite of my pitch issues in places, this is a pretty good representation of where I am at in my development six weeks into learning this simple but trying instrument.

The Celtic Knot, is another of my original compositions, written for pipes, but performed on the whistle. It is the basis of a much larger medley of original tunes, and this is the open sequence... happy, open, simple. There is always much anticipation and hope for ourselves and those we want to connect with - and musically, the knot is yet to be formed at this point in the performance. This simple theme is a gentle reminder of the things that can be, and the desire we have in our own lives to be connected with the things we want - and the effort we take to make things the way we want them to be; intertwined, happily entangled and still at peace. Like a sleepy dreamer, lightly snoring, warm and content, yet still connected... First the theme is played with just the melody line, then harmonized, it is interlaced.


The Gael is performed in the key of C - which is the key it was composed in by Dougie MacLean - an amazing Scottish composer and performer. Interesting point - Dougie plays his material in a bizarre guitar tuning - open C, which is a dream for tradition instruments as he uses capos to bring his guitar into the range of fiddles, mandolins and other melody instruments. I've tried to bring the two themes of this tune out individually, then place them, layered over each other in the fashion that the counterpoint was written. I know I haven't done Dougie's amazing music justice, nor is my recording technique anything to write home about; however, it is a snapshot in time. I will do some major performance (meaning a helluva lot more practice on the whistles) and production work on both of these before the CD is produced.

Please enjoy the Celtic Knot and The Gael.

Pipers Club - Halifax

Ok, so I spoke with Wayne Moug last night at NCR (Ottawa) RCMP pipe band rehearsal and he asked if I would be willing to play at the next Halifax pipers club on the 13th of March 2010. I'm going to be there for a workshop that week anyway, so I guess I'm playing.

Not that I'm certain anyone wants to listen to 50 year old hands play my material; I advised Wayne it will be my own compositions I'd be playing, so if it sounds dodgy I can blame the composer.... (hey that would be me)

Anyway, it's an honour to be asked. I wonder if there has been any coercion going on here..... hummmm. Those sneaky Haligonians....

A great time to reveal the Celtic Knot medley. Now - the war horn, shuttle or small pipes....?????

Keepin' it reel....

Ok - Johnny Ramone influenced me when I was a kid... can ya tell? (Don't believe me look at my grade 7 pic below) This track is pure, dead ahead punk celtic rock - did I just create a new idiom? I dunno you tell me. I wrote this reel between September and December 2009 (can ya name it?) and did the drum tracks and small pipes (John Walsh key of A) in about 6 hours, did the guitar bit in one take after spending six hours finding the right sound - it's a Marshall Plexi for those gear heads out there,played on a Gibson Nighthawk bridge pick up volume and tone wide open - and did the bass bit in two takes - started with 16th notes and found it too cluttered, so mixed it up between sixteenth and eighths...


Mastered and dumped in one evening... and voila! Simple music that makes ya feel good.... I love this one. Fun, up and moving. It was recorded at 170 bpm... Johnny would be so proud - I got my red high tops out for this one....


Hey! Ho! - Let's go! Oi!!!!!!!

Go to the player and scroll down to "Keepin' it reel" and hang on!!!!!! Ya won't want to be sedated....

Strolling Spring Garden Road

This piece was written in July of 2009 while I was at the RNSI Tattoo. I fell in love with the city of Halifax, its people, its places; the events that I experienced there were life altering. I have several memories of Spring Garden Road - riding the bus and having a conversation with everyone around me - a story I have told many times publicly, but I also have many private inspirational memories that I will never forget.


The first track was the concept piece. It is largely unmastered and unengineered, contains road noise from Halifax, as if I was actually out walking, and ends with a solo piper - conceptually - playing in the Public Gardens at Spring Garen Road. I thought the music stood on its own, and thus, the finished piece demonstrates that - without road noise, minus some over dubbing and minus Irish whistles, which I am still attempting to master - I'm still very pitchy at times....

The second track is, as it stands, now open for public listening. I performed and recorded each of the tracks on a Zoom R16 multi track recorder in Ottawa. Thanks to Graeme Ogilve for his loan of the electronic Daeger pipes, and to Mo Aller for loaning me his three drone key of A John Walsh small pipe. Thanks to Scott Shpak for his sonic wisdom.

Start to finish, this represents six minutes of music. Beginning to end from composition, rehearsal, recording, mixing and now publishing, it represents about three, sleep free, weeks of my life. My music is inspired by a muse, and it is a labour of love.

I hope you enjoy this. Click on the file factory widget below - both tracks will play eventually play.