Passion for the Music
Thursday evening I had two different and related experiences that spoke to the reasons we do what we do. I met with Gord Taylor at the Conservatory. He got himself a new B-flat chanter that needed a reed, and I wanted to go through his recent book "One Tone Over the Line" with a view to getting my head around his material. Gord has been writing and publishing tunes for some time, and his musical ideas have been the basis for several medleys, and quite a few "show sets" for the old Stirling Pipe Band, and later the Winnipeg St. Andrew's Pipe Band. Gord was a member of both, and he has also developed his abilities as a composer, arranger, and with other instruments.

I found it refreshing and fun to sit down with the composer, hear him play his tunes, and learn from him how to play them, and what concepts were driving the composition. Gord hears lots of percussion and other instrumentation when he composes, and he seems to write music with a purpose in mind. He is passionate about his music and his tunes, refreshingly honest about what he likes and doesn't, and very happy to play and talk about the tunes. There is a lot of good material in this collection, and to get an idea about what Gord hears, be sure to check out his sound samples.

After spending a couple of hours playing tunes with Gord, and learning about his music, I wandered over to O'Hanlon's to talk to Niall about an upcoming gig [October 4th - Alexander Keith's Birthday - come hear us!], and he had a band in there. They were a young group of guys from Ontario, three guitars and a drum kit. They are called Poorfolk and they were good. There were only about 10 people in the place, and a few people on the upstairs balcony, but for any band, it would've been a pretty empty room. The thing was, they didn't care. They played like there was nothing except the music—the playing was very good, and the sound was good, and they didn't hold back on the chat or the rock&roll stage antics, or the passion in delivery of their tunes. If you saw it on YouTube, you'd think there were 1,000 people there.

Anyway, I found that pretty inspiring, too. The music IS what it's all about. They were laying it all out there, and seemd to be having a blast "just" playing. Sometimes, it can be easy to forget that the playing is what it's all about.