Nae Regrets’ High-Energy Live-Performance Album
20April2010
Nae Regrets had another great weekend playing at Northwest Folklife festival Memorial Day Weekend 2009. Some of our performances were captured live — ‘lightning in a bottle’ — available to you on this album! If you want an autographed copy e-mail Nae Regrets for details, and coming soon downloads through various MP3 services for those of you who don’t bother with CDs any more — its all good! Oh, and I want to try and get Nae Regerts’ music available so you can play them at bars on those newer online digital jukebox units. See he official Nae Regrets MySpace profile.

Here’s BagpiperDon’s recording journal from the weekend…

• 22May2009, Friday — I think I brought my recording equipment on this day but was so busy with the weekend getting underway that I didn’t set it up.
• 23May2009, Saturday — Played all day, still didn’t get my recording unit set up. Had it out for our stage set, but things got underway before I could switch it on. Wish I had caught our stage set — we had a HUGE audience, our performance was great. Hopefully 2010 I’ll get get our stage set recorded.
• 24May2009, Sunday — Recorded about an hour of our busking (aka “street performing”).
• 25May2009, Monday — Recorded two of our busking sets today including our last set of the event. Our audiences were great. We were tired and yet gave everything — it seems the music brings that out of us. Unbelievable weekend, unbelievable music — what a great time I won’t soon forget! (NOTE: This recording is the bulk of the album!)
• Intention — NW Folklife 2010 — I want to record everything I can of our playing, ’cause this stuff turned out well … except this time I’m going to know better how to set-up my recording gear. …Does this mean there is going to be a live album of our 2010 playing?

Tracks    approx 44m08s
The original plan was to use the best take of each song and put these together on the album. After countless times of listening to the raw material, making notes, making charts to quantify my opinions of the recording quality and the playing and the …yes, I made charts… What I found out of all this was that the recordings were good, but our very last set best encapsulated the buzz that was going on all weekend. When I listened to it again, specifically thinking that this might be ‘the album’, I was additionally pleased because the straight-take would then make it not only a live album but a concert album. Since we played all but one of our songs in that final set, I grabbed the best take of Minstrel Boy Build — which happened to be from the recording earlier that day — and added it to the collection. Something special happened this weekend, and I think it can be heard in this recording.

Minstrel Boy Build – Minstrel Boy, Bluebells of Scotland – A tour of building force, mounting pipes and drums, breaking for percussive exploration, climaxing with the tunes bringing all back to being able to breath.

Jenny Blackbird – Blackbird air/reel, Jenny Dang the Weaver, A Cup of Tea, Swallow Tail Coat – Don starts the set with a rare Irish air few Highland bagpipers play going into its accompanying reel, and Nae Regrets is off to the reel races.

Brown Haired Maiden 2/4-March set – Brown Haired Maiden, Highroad to Gairloch, Mhari’s Wedding, Cutting Bracken, Highland Laddie, Barren Rocks, Teribus, Corriechollies Welcome to the Northern Gathering – Don likes to dedicate this set to women with brown hair because of the first tune in the set — titled “Brown Haired Maiden” — for all the times you hear “Blonds have more fun”, this set is for the brown-haired women!
Download an unedited version of Brown Haired Maiden set — free! (NOTE – This is currently only available via the Nae Regrets’ FaceBook page)

Roots Rock (belly-dance set) – Awel Mara (trad. Turkish, arr. Aaron Shaw), Dreaming of Spain (© Tim McCarthy) (both tunes used with kind permission) – Giving a nod to the instruments origins through playing alternate pitches, this fun bellydance set stirs distant thoughts of eastern incense, lavish tents, and the charms of enticing bellydancing women.

Pikeman’s Dawn Battle – Dawning of the Day, Battle of Waterloo, Pikeman’s March – Traditional Irish and Scottish tunes, with the unique bent pitch within Dawning of the Day.

6/8-March set – Piobaireachd of Donald Dubh, The Heights of Dargai, Bonnie Dundee, Muckin’ of Geordie’s Byrer – Piobaireachd — meaning “pipe music”, pronounced ‘pea-brock’.

STB Closer set – Scotland The Brave, Green Hills of Tyrol, When the Battle’s Over – It used to be that Stairway to Heaven was played at the end of dances, signaling the end of the night. Dave Matthews Band closes their concerts with “All Along The Watchtower” by Bob Dylan. We wrap our playing with STB Closer Set, putting the “rock” in “Celtic-rock” — in this case, a big finish to what had made for a big weekend.
Download an unedited version of STB Closer set — free! (NOTE – This is currently only available via the Nae Regrets’ FaceBook page)

Recorded live at Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, Washington, USA 25May09.
Once released, all CD tracks should be 100% okie-dokie for airplay.
To best knowledge the compositions featured on this album are traditional &/or in the public domain with the exception to “Roots Rock” as otherwise indicated.
Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
© Don P. Scobie 2010 ~ All rights reserved

This page last updated 18February2012