by Glenn Dreyer-
Dated March 1993, the fifth Journal from the North American Association of Lowland and Border Pipers is rather different from earlier issues. The core content of this one covers three topics: a travelogue by Alan Jones, further exploration of pastoral pipes by Brian McCandless, and autobiographical information submitted by some NAALBP members.
Alan Jones’ lengthy piece on his 1991 trip to Northern England and Southern Scotland to visit with most of the bellows pipe making and playing luminaries is a joy to read. Alan is an unrepentant and obsessive collector of bagpipes, and I admit to nearly drooling over his acquisitions, and being down right envious of his friendship with people like Colin Ross, Gordon Mooney, Ray Sloan, Anthony Robb, Robbie Greensit and Ann Sessoms, Matt Seattle, Julian Goodacre, Richard Butler and David Burleigh, just to drop a some of the famous piping names he met up with on his whirlwind tour.
Brian McCandless’ ethnomusicological scholarship shines through once again in an article which continues his musings on the origins and utilization of Pastoral pipes.
About half of Journal No. 5 is dedicated to the results of a questionnaire sent to the dues paying members of the Association. Our APNA editorial group all thought the responses to questions such as these were well worth presenting to pipers twenty years later: What kind of pipes do you play? What tunes do you play frequently? What kind of instruction have you had? What anecdotes would you like to share? We agreed that, while this information is a fascinating record of the state of alternative piping in 1993, it was inappropriate to include the piper’s names and contact information, which was printed as part of the original responses. No doubt some of you will recognize yourselves or your piping friends in those pages.
No Journal issue would be complete without some tunes (thanks to APNA co-conspirator John Daly, who was already part of the alternative piping scene way back when), and a bunch of historic piping illustrations. Many other bits of piping lore and gossip will also be found in the pages of Journal No. 5.
I’m sorry to say that there are only two more issues to come in the NAALBP Journal series. We at APNA are proud to be able to make this wealth of piping information available to a much larger audience than was possible with the original print editions twenty year ago. Stay tuned for Journals No. 6 & 7.
All the Journals can be accessed from the NAALBP Archives drop down menu at the top of the page, or go directly to Journal No.5 here.