April Newsletter
Meeting Recap
Another great meeting folks! We spent the day taking turns teaching and learning new tunes. Here they are in case you want to work on them yourself for next time:
The Drunken Gauger - Set Dance (p439 in the Walsh book)
Jimmy Ward's - Jig (p110 in the Walsh book)
Behind the Haystack - Jig (p25 in the Walsh book)
We also took a look at back stitching and its use in the Harvet Home hornpipe. I’d highly recommend checking out Preston Wilde’s chanter tutorial on this tune to explore it yourself.
Walsh Tune Book
A reminder that our infamous Walsh Tune Books are now available for sale on our website. They are a very limited quanitity, and the ability to reprint is unknown, so get yours while you can! Due to the limitations of our website, International order must be done via email rather than through the website. If you live outside the United States, please contact us at hello@irishpipersclub.com with your address so we can calculate shipping.
Here is a direct to the book in our shop: The Cumann Na bPiobairi Collection of Pipe-Friendly Tunes by John Walsh
And speaking of tune books, Elliot Grasso, a former member of the club, will be releasing a new tune book soon. You can check out his youtube channel for updates on when that will be, as well as some great music.
Workshops & Concerts
Cascade Irish Music Week is back!
The much loved week long workshop in Olympia, WA is back after a brief hiatus last year. This year is packed full of excellent instructors again, including the legendary Mickey Dunne for uilleann pipes. You can find out more about the workshop here: Cascadia Irish Music Week
Randal Bays & Ceoltóirí Cascadia: Irish Baroque II
On a bit of a short notice, Randal Bays (the driving force behind Cascadia Irish Music Week) will be in concert April 20th. Although in person tickets are sold out, virtual tickets are still available here: Randal Bays Irish Baroque II
In local news…
If you live in the Seattle area you might have heard that the famous Conor Byrnes pub is set to close down. There has been some speculation that a co-op may buy it to keep it up. Here an article about it: Seattle’s Conor Byrne Pub could reopen this spring - Seattle Times
Another much loved establish and home to Seattle’s Monday session, Murphy’s may be in danger. Again, there is much specualtion about their situation, but the latest word is they wont be closing any time “soon.” Here’s a link to their GoFundMe page with more information: Murphy’s Pub GoFundMe
Tom Creegan
Tom Creegan has been a mainstay in the uilleann piping world, and the Irish trad scene at large for several decades. We’ve been fortunate to have him here in Seattle since the 80’s as well as a founding member of this club. But his time in Seattle is coming to an end and he’ll be moving back to Ireland next month. To show our appreciation for his contributions to the community John Manning will be hosting a going away party. The party will be held at John’s home in Ballard, so please reach out to him directly for an invite and details. John Manning
Bandcamp Finds
I was recently sharing a video of Mick O’Brien playing tunes from the Goodman Collection with a friend and realized there are still many pipers who are unaware of this incredible collection. There are currently two albums available on Bandcamp and I highly encourage everyone to check them out. You can find there here:
And here is a link to a video discussing the Goodman project and playing some tunes from the collection:
Submissions?
If anyone would like to share information in the monthly newsletter, or just stumbled upon something neat you want to share with the club at large, feel free to give us a shout at hello@irishpipersclub.com
That’s it for now. See you all in May!
