Posted by Nick on October 06, 2001 at 22:29:09 from 64.12.103.46: To make a short story as long as possible, Months ago I was looking for a real pennywhistler to give me a lesson or two. I posted a request on the pennywhistle part of Chiff & Fipple, for someone not too far away. Neil replied, but it was a three Hr. drive. He told me he would be playing at a Scottish festival in nearby Goshen CT. SO my wife & I went, saw a few cabers tossed, a sheep dog demonstration (great) some wonderful music, rather expensive fish n' chips and best of all ... the Anitpypr! (He played the whistle as well)

He had a band consisting of elec. rhythm guitar, elec. Bass, full set of drums. Neil played lead... BAGPIPE? Yep he was great, real rocking Scots/Celtic fusion stuff -- music. He called up a bodhuraner up from the audience on a few tunes. He was no slouch on the whistle. He had the tent clapping along, tapping of feet and in many ways reminiscent of a Great BIg Sea show, but nobody knew the words. He falls a bit short on his vocals, passable but not very good. His injection of a rock spirit to traditional Celtic instruments was entertaining as anything I have seen other than the band from Newfoundland. I talked to him after the show, I got to check out a few of his whistles, Coplands mostly. He said he paid over $300 for a Copeland low d whistle, $125 for a small c natural. These whistles had heft to them, I played just a few notes on one The C natural, it felt great in my hands, solid brass. He said he owned about 100 whistles! I told him that I liked him and his energy reminded me of Great Big Sea. "That's quite a compliment" he said. "I played a festival with them in Philadelphia, nice guys." (Slight Paraphrase here, as I took no notes!) (Anne were you there?) I felt like I was taking up too much of his time, lots of others wanted to chat, but he was a nice guy You can check out some samples, and get some info @ www.antipypr.com I bought 2 CD's and am quite pleased! Nick

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