The big news in the last two months is that I have purchased a set of Scottish Smallpipes from EJ Jones, the former piper for Clandestine, and now piper for The Willow Band. The pipes were of cocobolo, with a chanter in A and 4 dones: alto D, tenor A, baritone E, bass A. They're the 6th ever set of pipes EJ has made. And they sound great!

I travelled to DC over the New Year's weekend to pick up and try out the pipes on Friday, Jan 2nd. While I was there, Richard Kean (of Jiggernaut) dropped by and gave my pipes a work-out. Here are the (sometimes blurry) pictures I took from that visit:

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Here are the pics taken by Jay Ford when I came back that Sunday, and gave a fiddle lesson to EJ's friend Stephanie, while EJ worked out some kinks on my pipes. Stephanie's a violist who also plays medieval fiddle, and is interested in taking up Scottish/Irish fiddle, so I gave her a bit of a start.

When I got back to DC, the dry air wreaked havoc on the pipes and reeds, so I sent them back to EJ to be worked on. EJ has been tinkering with them for the last week or so, as well as making me a chanter in D, and I'm eagerly looking forward to playing them again! Meanwhile, these smallpipes are in the process of becoming more famous than I am, and will appear with EJ on the next Ed Miller and Wyndnwyre albums.