Piper's Gathering 2009

After driving back to New York from the Vermont Bellows Pipe School, and then up to Maine for a few days, and back down to Massachusetts and then back up to Vermont, I finally arrived at the Piper's Gathering on Friday evening, rather on time.

I'd had mixed feelings about attending this year's PG, as I didn't make any sales at PG 2008. But I'd signed up because my friend Ellen  would be teaching smallpipes. However, I was quite excited when I arrived having recently heard that Ellen was dragging down Ward, of Prince Edward Island, to play piano for her and that Tim Cummings of Vermont would be attending as a vendor. I could feel an unclosed circle closing.

Ward and Ellen were, or course, the two friends who have been coming down to teach at the Smallpipes and Fiddle workshops I have helped run in Maine twice a year for the past four years. It's a lovely time for Smallpipers and fiddlers, please feel free to email me about it. The next weekend will be at the beginning of November.

I got to know Tim Cummings through the Vermont Bellows Pipe School 2008 and 2009 and while working on his custom set of Plum and Antler Smallpipes. Tim runs a small Tunebook Publishing House in Moncton, VT called Beithe Publishing that puts out lovely tunebooks of "innovative reportoire for Scottish Pipes". He recently published a new book of tunes that includes one tune by myself, and a couple tunes by Ward called "An Ift of Efts". (Check it out!) Tim had met Ward at a Vermont folk event, and Ellen through some other obscure way (possibly when he was teaching at the College of Piping in PEI.) But we had not yet all been together in one place. It's a fun and rare thing for a group of friends who all know each other to get together for the first time all in one place. It's a little like magic.

Despite not having time to just play tunes together, I had a great time with everyone. And it was great to see and hear Ellen, Ward and Tim play one of Ward's G compositions, "the Ballerina" (found in "An Ift of Efts") at the concert on Sunday Night.

Another bonus of the weekend was finally getting to meet EJ Jones. EJ is a great piper, pipemaker, and now I know, also a great guy. I've long admired his work and have hoped we could meet and bemoan the troubles and trials of being a little pipe maker in a land of big companies like MacCallum. EJ was even more friendly than I could have hoped. You can see EJ playing some tunes with Tim below.

I even did a fair amount of business throughout the weekend and have had to up my wait list to 10 months (1 year wait here I come!). Thanks to everyone that runs the PG. It is a huge event that certainly doesn't run itself.