Borreraig: An Experience Waiting to Happen

January 6, 2011 on 8:45 pm by Michael Grey | In News, Random Thoughts, Solo Piping, Stories | 2 Comments

After a while, everyone who takes up the Great Highland Bagpipe comes to know of the MacCrimmons.

The MacCrimmons: that fabled sixteenth century piping family of virtuoso geniuses. The MacCrimmons, of course, were [and to a lesser extent, I suppose are] the family that provided piping services to the expansive MacLeod clan.

There’s Continue reading Borreraig: An Experience Waiting to Happen…

New Calum MacCrimmon Recording

March 19, 2010 on 1:43 pm by Michael Grey | In Music, News, Shout Outs! | 2 Comments

It seems somehow right that I should be listening to Calum MacCrimmon’s new record, “Man’s Ruin”, on a Westjet flight to Calgary. The Scotland-based Canadian piper/multi-instrumentalist – and heir to the MacCrimmon piping line – comes from Alberta. It was western Canada, too, in Saskatchewan (the place you can all “say without starting to stutter“), too, while teaching at that school I first met Calum. Anyway, gotta write about his CD work, its “excellento” as Jack or Victor might say. His music is cool in that confident, strutty, know-what-I’m-doin-and-I’m-doin-it sort of way. I guess that’s as a good a definition of cool as anything, isn’t it.
Continue reading New Calum MacCrimmon Recording…