Caroline Davies' Walkabout / Mazurka Migrane
Chris Wright and I recorded this set on a demo in 2004 as part of a project called Musion. Caroline Davies' Walkabout is a tune I composed for a Welsh friend of mine of that name and it flows nicely into this modern Flemmish mazurka composed by Wim Poesen.
Chris Wright - 10 string Cittern
Dan Houghton - Bouzouki, A Whistle & Border Pipes
Am Mathan Crùbach Am Mathan Crùbach or ‘The Crippled Bear' was originally an ironic title since I composed the tune for a friend of mine who is anything but crippled or a bear. It struck me later that the title could also be a very non ironic but metaphoric reference to the now endangered species called Winter. Then there are the polar bears...well, at least for the moment.
I recorded this on my own whilst trying to figure out how to use Garageband. The producton is not exactly orthodox but it was fun so I put it up here.
Dan Houghton - Flute, D Whistle, Border Pipes, Guitar & Bouzouki
Moladh an Ruis air a' Phraigheadh le Cneamh is Uisge Beatha / Tom's Incredible Table / The Otter's Pocket
‘In Praise of the Whisky Garlic Fried Rice', I composed for a particularly lovely meal which was had after a week of recording in the Borders with the then proto-Cantrip. The following two tunes, Tom's Incredible Table; and The Otter's Pocket, were composed by Jon Bews who is a good friend and colleague.
Jon Bews - Fiddle
Gavin Marwick - Fiddle
Cameron Robson - Guitar
Dan Houghton - Border Pipes
Wendy's Lament / Steppin' on Your Face / The Mystery of the Mud AngelPeter on the Logging Road
The first tune in this set is the creation of David Greenberg of Nova Scotia. The second, Steppin' on your Face', was composed by Jon Bews and the final two, Peter on the Logging Road, and The Mystery of the Mud Angel, are my responsibility. Again you can read more about them on the Cantrip website.
Jon Bews - Fiddle
Gavin Marwick - Fiddle
Cameron Robson - Guitar
Dan Houghton - Border Pipes
Steppin' Thyme
This wee set which consists of Steppin' on the Bridge (trad), Pressed for Time (G. Duncan) and Sheepskin Beeswax (trad), was the product of a late night experiment at Iain MacHarg's croft in Marshfield, VT. The Point of the exercise was to determine whether small pipes should, by nature of their physical and acoustic characteristics, be played differently from highland or border pipes. The first two tunes happened to be in my head because I was rehearsing the hell out of them for a gig and the last one, tacked on ad hoc, is an old Cantrip favourite.
Dan Houghton - Small Pipes, Border Pipes, Guitar
Highland Reels
This set opens with a tune from Gunn’s Collection called Tha Buaidh’ air an Uisge Bheatha (The Charms of Whisky) followed by an Irish tune, Pig Town which I first heard set for the Highland pipes by Paul MacNeill of Iona, Cape Breton.
The third, fourth and fifth tunes are all the same tune but in different keys and different modes. The tune is from the Patrick MacDonald Collection wherein it is called, very simply, Harris Dance. Several pipe versions have been recorded and published most notably by Ian, Allan and Dr. Angus MacDonald of Glen Uig. Their versions, like the opening one here, use a C sharp thus putting it in the A Mixolidian mode. Playing a cross fingered C natural puts it into C Major for the first part and A Minor for the second and it is thus that Patrick MacDonald transcribed it. Moving the tune up a step to D Major and B Minor allows one to preserve the mode of the tune as written without having to resort to cross fingering though it is at the expense of the top most note.
The final tune in this set is called Teigeis agus Dealg Innte (The Haggis with a Pin in Her) and it may be found written in the key of C in the Knockie Collection. Despite writing it out in this key Fraser states that it is a pipe tune and with only slight modifications to Fraser’s setting a very playable pipe tune is recovered.
Dan Houghton - Highland Pipes, Guitar
Influences
Alan MacDonald of Glen Uig, Fred Morrison, Gordon Duncan, Iain MacInnes, The Corries, David Francey, Gordon Bok, Richard Thompson, AC/DC, Jean Michel Vellion, Cillian Vallely, Jacob Fournel, Brian Yates, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Brian Finnegan, Ryans Fancy, Mes Souliers Sont Rouges, Tommy Makem, Liam Clancy, Barry Shears, Black Sabbath, Edward Abbey, Harlan Ellison, James Thurber, Johnny Cunningham, Dave Foreman, La Boutine Souriante, Rua, Phil Cunningham, Farley Mowat
TO A MOUSE –on turning up her nest with a plough
Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!
I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!
I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
’S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An' never miss’t!
Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new yin,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December's winds ensuin’,
Baith snell an’ keen!
Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin’ fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell-
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.
That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e’e
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!
Robert Burns
GRASS
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work–
I am the Grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Carl Sandburg
EPITAPH FOR A POLITICIAN
Here, richly and with ridiculous display
The politician’s corpse is laid away.
While all of his acquaintances quipped and slanged
I wept, for I had longed to see him hanged.
Hillaire Belloc
FOR ALL BLASPHEMERS
Adam was my grandfather,
A tall spoiled child,
A red clay tower
In Eden, green and mild.
He ripped the Sinful Pippin
From its sanctimonious limb.
Adam was my grandfather -
And I take after him.
Noah was my uncle
And he got dead drunk.
There were planets in his liquor-can
And lizards in his bunk.
He fell into the Bottomless
Past Hell's most shrinking star.
Old Aunt Fate has often said
How much alike we are.
Lillith, She's my sweetheart
Till my heartstrings break,
Most of her is honey pale
And all of her is snake.
Sweet as secret thievery,
I kiss her all I can,
While Somebody Above remarks
“That's not a nice young man!”
Bacchus was my brother,
Nimrod is my friend.
All of them have talked to me
On how such courses end.
But when his worship takes me up
How can I fare but well?
For who in gaudy Hell will care?
-And I shall be in Hell.
Steven Vincent Bienet
67.
pity this busy monster, manunkind,
not. Progress is a comfortable diseae:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)
plays with the bigness of his littleness
-electrons defy one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born-pity poor flesh
and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specemen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. We doctors know
a hopless case if - listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go
E. E. Cummings
Sounds Like
They with whom I'm playing and me playing together...
I am primarily a piper and flautist though I do on occasion make forrays into the territory of guitars and bouzoukis and I even sing from time to time. Much of my musical energy is dedicated to the band Cantrip (www.cantrip-music.co.uk) of which I am a founding member though I also play in various configurations and permutations of the set consisting of Cammy Robson, Jon Bews, James Gray, Chris Wright, Ewan MacPherson and Gav Marwick to name a few. In recent years I have also begun composing tunes.
I hold an undergraduate honours degree in Applied Mathematics and Geophysics which I got from the university of Otago in New Zealand and an MLitt in Gaelic Poetry and Language from Edinburgh Uni. I have just recently moved back to Edinburgh from Toulouse where I was working as an English instructor and translator and I have recently begun working in web design (see www.pipingtool.co.uk).
NOUVEAU!!!! Disponible sur Myspace! Un morceau extrait du nouvel album du groupe Maltavern "Douce Tornade" Sorti le 28 Juin 2008 Bonne écoute! A bientôt Et bon vent... Christo pour Maltavern
Thanks, Dan, for the add. We hope to hear you again at Randolph. Come and session with us if you're ever in the Saratoga, NY area. See myspace 'saratogapancelticsession' page for our local venues. Vonnie from 2 Bits (hammered dulcimer and piano).
Hello Dan! You played "steppin' thyme" at The Dubliner's, I remember, but I love this version !!Very astonishing play and amazing, rhythmic !And going to the melody softly... Bonjour chez toi! Corinne
Hi,Dan-the-Man! Are you in the USA still or back in Scotland? Doing any piping in Celtic Connections this year? I see there's loads of bagpipe events going on at it. x Ella
Well, now that we've met outside the realm of Myspace, I gotta say I _really_ liked the introduction. Thanks for a great time at JPO'H last night, and look forward to more!
exact exact on s'était croiser dans une petite ville près de cahors mais je ne me souviens plus du nom un grand bonjour au garthloney je ne les ai pas vu depuis longtemps bon réveillon et bonne année amitiés gael
hehe....nothing dodgy, i promise!! It was 'Rent'...it was quite spooky...if you get a chance rent it...you'll see what i mean!! Ciamar a tha thu??? oh, may have business op for Cantrip?! xo
Hi, Dan! It's been a long time, but great to see you're still playing music. It's interesting to read your exploits and all of your friends. Didn't you have a French girlfriend for a long time? I don't see her listed among your friends nor that group you were playing and dancing with. Are they no longer your friends? Hope we meet up again soon! Ella McPhail
Hey Dan! I hear you're back in God's own country and that your trip went pretty well! No doubt will see you soon, down again next week (with Ceit and Eilidh in tow so get practising your Gaelic :P)! Kx
