Donald is piper to the clans Wallace and Lamont, and the
Ritual piper for the Scottish Heritage Association. As a result he has
an extensive repertoire of Scottish, English and Irish tunes from which
he draws to customize any gathering.
His knowledge of, and desire
to perpetuate an unconventional style of music based on a much earlier
parallel piping culture *(see note below), as
performed by the old "community" pipers of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia,
and now virtually extinct, is unique among pipers.
Drawing on
little known selections of the late Joe Hughie MacIntyre, Sandy Boyd,
Alex Currie, Rory MacKinnon and Alan MacFarlane, curious tunes such as
The Red Shoes, Ardrishaig and The Nameless Strathspey will surely add to
any event.
Additional selections from contemporary proponents
such as Scott Williams and Barry Shears makes for a matchless
presentation of piping styles.
Requests are always welcome.
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*Parallel piping refers to the old style of piping popular
in the rural dance halls of the last century, performed by ear taught
pipers who couldn't read music. They played with an unorthodox fingering
style and individual musical expression considered inferior by those
trained in the rigidly uniform competition style favored by the
military.
Instead of recognizing the old style of dance hall piping
as a viable remnant of an earlier time and culture, it was subsequently
looked upon as an aberration to be corrected.