2009 St. Louis Tionol

There must be a sentiment of amateur journalists that I would paraphrase as “If only I knew that I would be writing this article, then I would have taken better notes!” If not, then such is the feeling with which I enthusiastically yet humbly present the following overview of the 2009 Mississippi River Celtic Music Festival, also known as the St. Louis Tionól. Of particular interest to me this year was Peter Browne’s attendance. As a teenager, his uilleann piping on “The Gathering” was one of the first recordings that I heard of Irish music. So, the chance not only to meet Browne, but also to learn from him at the intermediate piping workshop as well as to attend both a Friday presentation about the history of broadcasting in Ireland and a Saturday presentation on the life of Willie Clancy was, indeed, a rare opportunity.

The Tionól
An annual highlight for Celtic music in the Midwest took place in St. Louis, Missouri on April 3rd - 5th, 2009. Now in its 12th year, the St. Louis Tionól has consistently drawn some of the best talent in the Irish music world for workshops, concerts and sessions. In addition to many talented teachers and musicians from both sides of the Atlantic (including Patrick Ourceau, John Skelton, Andrew O’Brien, Roger Landes and Ged Foley to name just a few), a 3-day reed-making workshop was taught by reed and pipe-maker, Jim Wenham on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to visit with several pipers who had crafted at least one chanter reed under Wenham’s guidance.

Friday Lecture
On Friday afternoon at Saint Louis University, Peter Browne gave a presentation on the history of broadcasting in Ireland. Browne, host of the RTÉ program The Rolling Wave ¬– as well as a student of the three gods of Irish piping, Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy and Leo Rowsome – seems uniquely qualified to comment on technological and musical trends in traditional Irish music. Browne summarized the last 80+ years of broadcasting in Ireland and presented several examples from the early days of mobile recording in Ireland. Thank you to Mr. Browne for clarifying this cutting-edge technology (at least by 1940s standards!) later by email:

The Mobile Recording Unit (MRU) came to Raidió Éireann in 1947. It was the first time recordings were made by RÉ outside of the studio setting. The medium was acetate discs (like 78s but more fragile).

When magnetic tape eventually came to Ireland (from Germany) after the war, the fragile acetate discs were transferred onto the more durable medium. To do so, a collection of needles was needed to find the right match for the stylus that was originally used to cut the acetate. In other words, if the needle used in the transfer was too small, then the sound quality was diminished. On the other hand, if the needle used in the transfer was bigger than the one used to cut the acetate, it might damage the disc.

On an interesting side note, Browne commented that when traditional musicians were first brought from the countryside into the studio, mock farm scenes were constructed to help them feel more at ease with this alien environment!

Friday Concert
An evening concert was held at the Schlafly Taproom with performances by tionól teachers to whet the musical appetites of festival participants and Irish music fans from across the Midwest. A personal highlight for me was Skip Healy’s performance on flute. Boyish, charismatic and cowboy boot-wearing, Healy’s flute playing was vibrant and melodic with a driving rhythm. By an interesting coincidence, Healy had learned several tunes from Michael Cooney’s uncle while living in County Tipperary, Ireland. A native of Rhode Island, Healy explained that, at the time that he was living in Ireland, Michael was living in St. Louis so their paths did not cross until later. Of Course, Michael Cooney is one of the co-founders of the St. Louis Tionól along with Mike Mullins, patriarch of St. Louis Irish piping.

Saturday Class
In a classroom at Nerinx High School in Webster Groves, uilleann pipers from across the country gathered to glean musical wisdom from a consummate cadre of piping instructors including Michael Cooney, Peter Browne and Gay McKeon. In the intermediate workshop with Peter Browne, I made reference to a point from his Friday lecture. “Were you there?” he inquired. I dryly responded, “yes, I’ve been following you around for a few days!”

Browne was both scholarly and approachable, factual yet humorous and he spoke much as he played the pipes by condensing tightly packaged phrases with such precision and rapidity that it was difficult to fully digest everything that was heard. Much like a melody that is performed so quickly that the subtlety cannot be discerned upon first impresssion, Browne engaged and sometimes surprised the students with his musical insights and unexpected turns-of-phrases. It was for him, perhaps, the most efficient means of communicating a tremendous amount of musical and factual information into the finite format of the workshop. In just the morning session he taught a lovely double jig from Goodman’s collection Tunes of the Munster Pipers entitled “The Humors of Cloyne” and the slow air Casadh an tSúgáin or “The Twisting of the Hayrope.” According to Browne, he learned this slow air from a recording of Willie Clancy, who in turn had learned it from Leo Rowsome. Browne explained that the air was meant to commemorate a wily mother outsmarting her daughter’s suitor by having him hold one end of the straw cordage as she twisted a longer and longer piece of rope. When the rope was sufficiently long and the suitor was safely outside the house, she simply closed the door on him!

An important aspect of Browne’s approach to slow airs is that a basic knowledge of the lyrics (if there are any) can give the piper what he refers to as “a sense of the inner architecture” of the music. The idea is not that a slow air should be phrased exactly as a vocalist would sing the lyrics, but that knowing just a line or two of a song can provide the piper an “underlying structure” to approach slow air playing.
A presentation during the noon lunch break focused on the life of Willie Clancy. According to Browne, Clancy was a carpenter by trade and not only a piper, but also a singer, dancer and flute player. Willie’s father Gilbert was a close friend of Garret Barry; through this connection, the young Willie inherited much of Barry’s musical legacy in spite of the fact that Barry had passed away some twenty years before his birth. Several archival interviews of Clancy further colored the lines of what Browne had described that morning as a process of ‘sympathetic magic’: the more you know about a piper like Clancy, how he lived and other aspects of his life, the more your music will become imbued with his character.

During the afternoon session, we learned the second part of the slow air and started a reel with the interesting title “The Cat that Ate the Candle.”

Saturday Concert and Sessions
The Saturday concert was hosted this year for the first time at the Union Avenue Opera House; the new venue proved to be an intimate setting for a superb evening of acoustic performances by the tionól teachers. Step-dancers from St. Louis Irish Arts provided a colorful, dynamic dimension to the many excellent musical performances. After the concert, a return to the Schlafly Taproom spawned many joy-filled sessions that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday At McGurk’s
John D. McGurk’s Irish Pub in Soulard provides the perfect conclusion to a weekend-long musical journey. Exuding a palpable Celtic character, McGurk’s is a structural homage to the artistic and literary contributions of the Irish. Within these walls, the cozy spaces unfold and provide a rich environment from which music seems to spring forth spontaneously like morel mushrooms in the various nooks and crannies of the pub. As I wandered from room to room seeing faces both old and new, I was reminded of the comfortable, familial feeling that Irish music invokes: a deep sense of connection. And even though I am not Irish by heritage, it is an honor to be a part of this extended family that comes from playing Irish traditional music.

© 2009 by J. Beau Buffington

WinterStorm 2009

If every elevated vista is preceded by a series of harrowing steps and missteps, nimble traversing of literal and metaphorical gorges, and periodic oblivion of the path, then WinterStorm IX was a textbook example of the way to the top of the mountain. Food poisoning on the first day of our intended trip had left me utterly incapacitated in spite of the fact that I had volunteered both my wife and myself for a 3-day stint. Thankfully, Friday saw a clearing of my internal atmosphere only to be replaced by a downturn of meteorological conditions: A dusting of snow had created a blizzard-like veil between Springfield and Kansas City.

At many points during the drive, only one driving lane was cleared while the other lane was a snow-packed, ungrated and wholly untested trail. Four hours later, after numerous traffic jams, slow-downs, an overturned tractor-trailor and one small vehicle on the wrong side of the freeway missing a large part of its trunk and bumper (which could be found scattered downstream from the impact site) we made it. We quickly assimilated into the staff of neon orange-shirted volunteers, which were once again managed by the incessantly energetic, Duracell bunny-like Beth Wilson.


My favorite task on Friday was running the tuning lights for the Gold Medal piobaireachd and light music events. It afforded me not only one of the best seats in the house, but also it allowed me to share in the sheer gravity of the moment. A competitor would appear on the stage and begin to blow the drones, and I was to start the timer as soon as I heard the chanter. The lights, meant to help expedite the tuning process of the competitor, would cycle thru a sequence of green to yellow to red like a mini, horizontal traffic light.

My palms soon started sweating profusely at the idea that I might start or stop the timer before the competitor had truly commenced. I knew only one or two of the Gold Medal tunes, so if I started or stopped the lights inappropriately, this distraction for competitor or the audience might not create a fair contest! Last minute instructions on the use of the tuning light remote control by the MHAF vice-president – and a further reeducation by the volunteer that I was replacing (“Give the competitors an extra minute before you start the timer,” he commented “the judges are feeling generous!”) – only added to my sense of nervousness.

My initial fears were quickly put to rest by the shear quality of the performances. It is little wonder that the highland bagpipe became the instrument of choice for medieval highland chieftains: the sound of a well-tuned instrument creates a spell-binding force field around the player. A master piper creates such an aura of utter control that it almost appears as if the piper is practicing a form of acoustic levitation – a sonic galvanization forged before your very eyes! Such was the magical vista to which the Gold Medal competition transported the audience. To hear the winning performances, visit Ken "The Captain" Eller's excellent blog The Captain's Corner and scroll to Winter Storm 2009.

Saturday found me transporting Colin MacLellan, Fred Morrison and an overhead projector to their respective classrooms. MacLellan’s presentation on the Silver Medal tunes was well-attended by several pipers from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia as well as professional pipers from across North America. MacLellan spoke at-length of melodic and phrasing variations for each tune and led the group in focused practice-chanter work. He then concluded with a piping performance of his father’s beautiful composition – The Phantom Piper of Corrieyairack at the Community Christian Church. Of course, Colin’s father was the great piper, Pipe Major and instructor at the Army School of Piping, Captain John A. MacLellan, M.B.E.


If there was ever a piping and drumming Hogwarts academy, WinterStorm would be a natural candidate. On this weekend, the center of the world of Scottish piping and drumming is truly transported from Glasgow, Scotland to Kansas City, Missouri. If that’s not a first class sleight-of-hand, then I don’t know what is! I still can’t help but marvel at how the WinterStorm event has raised the standard of piping and drumming in the Midwest and will continue to do so for generations to come. WinterStorm has become the premiere piping and drumming event in North America. No doubt, this is due in large part to the extraordinary work of the Board of the Midwest Highland Arts Fund in planning and executing the event.