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Buy Breakfast In Balquhidder here for ONLY £10 incl P&P!!!

After a few months' gestation, the Macaroon Ceilidh Band is finally born! More...

breakfast in balquhidder cd

Hear samples:

Breakfast In Balquhidder
(BKSH-CD01, 2004, Backshore Productions)

"Wonderful music that defies labelling and doesn't need it anyway" [The Living Tradition]

"Warm winter night music" [The Financial Times]

For full reviews click here.

All pieces written by Colin Blakey

Arranged by Colin Blakey and Philippa Bull

Recorded, mixed, mastered and published by Backshore Productions

Sleeve artwork and design by No 16 Design Studio (www.no16.net)

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Price £10 (free postage to UK)

Having breakfast together were:

Colin Blakey - piano, gaita
Philippa Bull - drum set, percussion
Steve 'Wee' Brown - double bass, electric bass
Stephen McNally - border pipes, gaita
Paddy Martin - highland pipes, uilleann pipes, low whistle
Kieran Gallagher - congas, berimbao, pots, bongos, caxixi
Lorne Cowieson - flugelhorn
Kim-ho Ip - yang qin
Ron Blakey - clarinet
Steve Wickham - violin

Track Listing
(click on arrow to play sample):

Arriving In Oban

Sun In The Eyes

The Old Dispensary

Tobar Halamog Variation

Auga

The Irish Sea

Breakfast In Balquhidder

Karmac

Hall Farm Blues

Guapa

Tobar Halamog

Low Tide

Track descriptions:

Arriving In Oban
The tune was written on the Glasgow to Oban train, and the groove has a train-like momentum behind it. Patrick Martin's highland pipes playing is incredibly light and grittily rhythmic. Jazz on a train.

Sun In The Eyes
Uses elements of Afro-Cuban music including piano montuno, and tumbao on the congas. Lorne Cowieson's flugelhorn solo is the high point of this track, whilst the Galician pipes unfold the melody in an expansive soundscape which is given headroom by Steve Wickham's multiple violins.

The Old Dispensary
Possibly the only piece of music in the world which has highland, Galician, uilleann and Scottish border pipes all playing together - at the same time! The tune migrates through various keys, and is underpinned by a driving Ijexa rhythm.

Tobar Halamog Variation
This is a gaita (Galician pipes) and Scottish border pipes duet in the style of a Bach musette.

Auga
Roots Jamaican music shows its influence here. The melody, played on clarinet and uilleann pipes, is underpinned by a gigantic double-bass counterpoint, played by Steve 'Wee' Brown.

The Irish Sea
On this track Kieran Gallagher plays a Brazilian single-stringed instrument called a berimbao which you hit with a stick, in between soaring gaitas (Galician pipes) and big thunking bass and drums. Starts clean and ends dirty.

Breakfast In Balquhidder
Features the yang qin (a traditional Chinese instrument with lots of strings) playing of Kim Ho Ip, and begins with Phil Bull's 'cello. It starts quietly and slowly somewhere in China, then picks up speed and instruments, and ends up in the swamp somewhere near New Orleans.

Karmac
This is a pop song with no words, sung by a pair of Galician pipes (gaitas), over piano, bass and drums, pure and simple.

Hall Farm Blues
This highsteps its way from Jamaica to Scotland via Galicia, and winds down to a percussion-only 'version' finish, featuring a congo groove.

Guapa
On this track there are no bagpipes of any kind at all! Flugelhorn and electric piano joust together over a gliding 5/4 rhythm.

Tobar Halamog
From jazz waltz to baion, there are three variations of the one theme, which also appears elsewhere on the album as a musette. Features Galician gaita and Chinese yang qin working together in in close harmony.

Low Tide
In this meditative piece the melody is hauntingly played on low whistle and uilleann pipes. They are accompanied by the sound of The Backshore near to where the music was recorded, on Easdale Island.