Travelling with my pipes
You know that syndrome you get when they amputate a limb, the one where people who've had a leg or arm amputated report that it still feels like they have it? Well, I feel like that about my uilleann pipes. Whenever I take 'em off, it still feels like I've got a bellows straped around my belly. Because of this, I tend to go into withdrawal if I don't take them with me when I travel. So, when I went to Florida to visit my family (and fish for redfish), I took me pipes.
Now, this is the south and my Dad doesn't know much about my musical tastes, so when when I took my chanter, bellows and bag out of the suitcase, my dad asks me what they were.
"Those are my pipes.", I said.
"Well, what are they for? Son, you're not using that to smoke the marijuana are you?", he asked, completely horrified.
"No Dad, it's not a bong, it's an instrument. I learning to play irish music with it."
"Irish music?"
So I tried to play the two tunes, I could do reasonably well, Willie Clancy's Reel and Follow Me Up to Carlow.
He only winced twice (that I could see).
"Well, it ain''t Johnny Cash now is it?"
My Dad isn't very worldly, when you ask him what kind of music he likes he says:
"Oh, I like both kinds: Country and Western." It's his favorite joke.
My pipes absolutely loved Florida. They sounded better than they ever have. The reed seemed to adjust just fine to the humidity, but then maybe my mood had something to do with it. I caught a redfish every day I went out.
It doesn't get much better than that.
Now, this is the south and my Dad doesn't know much about my musical tastes, so when when I took my chanter, bellows and bag out of the suitcase, my dad asks me what they were.
"Those are my pipes.", I said.
"Well, what are they for? Son, you're not using that to smoke the marijuana are you?", he asked, completely horrified.
"No Dad, it's not a bong, it's an instrument. I learning to play irish music with it."
"Irish music?"
So I tried to play the two tunes, I could do reasonably well, Willie Clancy's Reel and Follow Me Up to Carlow.
He only winced twice (that I could see).
"Well, it ain''t Johnny Cash now is it?"
My Dad isn't very worldly, when you ask him what kind of music he likes he says:
"Oh, I like both kinds: Country and Western." It's his favorite joke.
My pipes absolutely loved Florida. They sounded better than they ever have. The reed seemed to adjust just fine to the humidity, but then maybe my mood had something to do with it. I caught a redfish every day I went out.
It doesn't get much better than that.
posted by Tony Darnell | 10:44 PM
1 Comments:
ooh, traveling, I hear you man!
When trying to find a way home from Northern Minnesota to South eastern Wisconsin I was being stubborn. Traveling with a Full set of Uilleann pipes is not easy without your own car. When I told my family I couldn't take the bus as I didn't want the pipes in the cargo hold for so long getting cold, and that the same thing would go with the planes leaving my local airport, my brother suggested I leave them behind. When I said I didn't want to cause they'd dry out in my dorm room sitting here that long (a bit of a lie, I just couldn't bare the idea of not practicing that long) my brother suggested I leave a glass of water next to the pipe case incase they get thirsty!
HA
Jeremy
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