Piping Live! Day 3 – a piob crawl

seems to be going nonstop, billowing the enticing aroma of seared beef. Grabbing a quick cheeseburger in between acts at the festival is a staple for many, and the grill keeps on grilling even through the rain. We might bottle some of the smoke and sell it on eBay as a quick pick-me-up for the winter blahs, the scent taking us back to the biggest week of the year. That’s gold, baby!

The redoubtable Willie McCallum was the Lunchtime Recitalist, playing for another sold-out audience at the NPC Auditorium. The session was streamed live on the net, as McCallum delivered his usual solid show of musicality on a perfect pipe. Willie McCallum always has strong affinity for family and tradition, and his choice of tunes here again reflected his Argyllshire roots, paying homage to the composers and music of the land of his birth, rich with piping history.

The Piobaireachd Society continues to try to remake itself for the modern times, less of a closed-shop and more accessible to the general public. Case in point was the “Piobaireachd in the Pub” session at 2 pm at the Street Café. Ceol more greats Murray Henderson and Bruce Gandy delivered some of the big music in a very traditional and familiar manner, with some more “tuney” tunes like “Lord Lovat’s lament” and “The MacLeods’ Salute” rockin’ out the joint while PiobSoc Head-Honcho Jack Taylor stood by wearing, as with Henderson and Gandy, their jaunty new Piob in the Pub t-shirts. The recital ended with Gandy and Henderson’s riffing some “Lament for the Children” with a death-metal band firing some pyrotechnics as Taylor dived into the mosh-pit. Just kidding. But these are changing times for the Piobaireachd Society as they move into a more modern era.

The day was starting to become very positively piobaireachdy, if that’s a word (it is now), what with the Piobaireachd Society peeps and their piobs coming out for some daylight, and almost at the same time upstairs in the centre there was more celebration of the . . .