Here’s a wee little schottische written for our 25th (silver) wedding anniversary. Composed on the concertina – it fits really nice on pipes and fiddle as well.
Recorded in the loft whilst in COVID isolation – the room service was excellent ..
Category: Northumbrian Music
Rook Book: Subscriptions open!
Subscriptions for “The John Rook Manuscript” are now open. You can subscribe over here on the crowdfunder platform: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-john-rook-manuscript/
There are a variety of reward options available:
- Player’s Manuscript – £16 (RRP £16 + P&P)
- Hardback Subscription – £35 (RRP £45 + P&P)
- Hardback + Player’s – £45
The crowdfunding rewards include postage (or personal delivery!) to the UK – if you want to subscribe from abroad, I’ll need to charge postage at cost. Simply support the crowdfunder and let me know and we’ll sort something out. Surface mail to the US is about £12 at the moment .. air mail is somewhere between £25 & £30!
Subscriptions are open until 3rd June – and copies of the book and the player’s manuscript will be available at the end of August at wallpapermusic.co.uk
New Tunes Casting of the Hand & Rothley Road
Here’s two new jigs in D that fit well on the pipes
The Casting of the Hand has been on the bench for a while but was finished in May. Originally cast as a votive offering in the 2nd or 3rd century, and later cast into a ditch; my wife was fortunate to be working on an an archaeological dig at Vindolanda when a small bronze hand was uncovered in 2018.
Rothley Crag is near Cambo in Northumberland and the second tune came to me whilst driving between the two (en route to Rothbury Festival)
New Music Book: Doon the Redewater
Over the last five years I’ve been helping out local mouth-organ player Don Clegg in transcribing all of his new compositions and now we’ve gathered them all together and published them in a proper book. “Doon the Redewater” is available at Core Music in Hexham and online
Many of Don’s tunes are in the key of A, but he’s always happy to transpose for Northumbrian pipes – so we’ve also got a piper’s manuscript to accompany the book with all of the tunes arranged for NSP.
Don is also a wonderful dialect poet and storyteller and I’m currently compiling a book of poems & tales which should be available before Christmas.