The Skye Crofters (BP)

from Pay The Pipemaker by Jeremy Kingsbury

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05: The Skye Crofters (BP)
I first heard about this tune from James MacDonald Reid, a founding member of the first Lowland Pipe revival club in Scotland. Lowland or Border pipes very nearly and arguably did go extinct as a continuous tradition. There was still one piper, Cedric Clark, who may have been part of a continual Lowland piping tradition when folks like James MacDonald Reid and Jimmy Wilson began playing Border pipes in the 1960s. Clark wasn’t much of a player though, and while he would offer comment on people’s playing he didn’t have a strong impact on the repertoire and style of music to move forward as part of the revival. An informal Lowland Pipers’ Society was formed by James MacDonald Reid, Bob Thomas and Jimmy Eaton in 1974, and eventually a more formal Lowland and Border Pipes Society (LBPS) was formed in the early 1980s, by Hugh Cheape, Gordon Mooney, Jimmy Eaton, PM John MacLellan and Mike Rowan.
Bob Thomas was not in Scotland during the early 80s and Reid was in and out of Scotland through the 80s, but when he returned to Scotland for a longer stretch of time he competed with The Skye Crofters at the 1986 LBPS Competition. Reid’s source for this tune was David Sweetman, a student of Billy Pigg who played the tune on Northumbrian Small Pipes (NSP). One of the challenges, especially in the early days of the revival was finding tunes from a Border or Lowland tradition rather than Highland tunes. While there wasn’t a continuous Border piping tradition on the Scottish side of the border, Northumberland small pipes (NSP), while a very different instrument with its stopped chanter and staccato piping likely kept much of the repertoire alive and well. I should say Billy Pigg himself was a bit of a controversial piper, with influence from Uilleann piping creeping into his approach on NSP, but it is a lovely tune and I’m very thankful for my conversations with James MacDonald Reid for cluing me into the history of the revival and this tune, he thinks it was likely composed in reference to this incident:
www.highlifehighland.com/skye-and-lochalsh-archive-centre/glendale-martyrs-1883/


Here is Billy Pigg playing it:
youtu.be/XS7Iy8Ywlrc

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from Pay The Pipemaker, released December 3, 2021

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Jeremy Kingsbury Grand Forks, North Dakota

I host a bi-weekly bagpipe and history podcast which explores the likely repertoire eighteenth and early nineteenth century bagpipers.
I've played Highland pipes and uilleann pipes since the nineties. My albums are an opportunity for me to keep the tunes and songs I have most enjoyed from creating the podcast.

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