The Burley Bagpipe Company
Unit #2 1362 Carmi Avenue V2A 3H2 Penticton, BC, Canada

All our hairy kids!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Burley family, The Burley Bagpipe Company, Beach Tails Pet Salon and Spa and LochansideCollies !!! Looking forward to a great new year!!! Best wishes to all for 2021!!!

My Uilleann practice set will soon be a half set. Making drone reeds today. I also still need to finish the main stock. Stay tuned.

It isn't often lately, that the world, out of the blue, gives you a reason to smile, but today it gave me a reason. I would like to share it. For the past few ...years, I have had the privilege of playing a small part in presenting the Shasta Piping Society's Piobearachd Composition Contest, hosted on Piping Press. It is a privilege I don't really deserve. My friend Stephen Rooklidge of the Shasta Piping Society, and Rob Wallace of the Piping Press have done all of the work in making the contest happen. I was simply able to offer another avenue, or voice, to advertise the contest to my circle of friends and followers on Facebook. I have been mainly an awestruck spectator to this contest, amazed by the contestants who managed to get their heads around composing a Piobearachd. This year the contest was won by Pipe Major Ben Duncan of Scotland. Second place went to Jori Chisolm of Seattle. (Jori previously won the contest.) Third place was a tie between Zephan Knichel of Vancouver and John Dew of Scotland. There were 18 entries in all. Very high caliber of talent in all of them. The 1st reason for my little smile, is PM Ben Duncan's first place winning entry. The tune is written for his dog and is titled "Salute to the Duke of Brax". (His dog's kennel name is "Duke of Brax".) As any of my FB friends know, my family and I are dog obsessed. The second and much bigger reason for my smile, is that Mr. Duncan is the Pipe Major of the "Royal Scots Dragoon Guards". In the early 1970s, the Royal Scots released an album entitled "Farewell to the Greys" If any of you are unfamiliar with it, this record was the catalyst for "Amazing Grace" becoming so popular on the Great Highland bagpipe. Sometime between my fifth and sixth birthday, this recording found its way into my home. I don't think I had ever heard or seen a bagpipe before this. I had no prior influences from my family to take up the pipes. Truthfully my Scottish heritage is painfully thin. My late Dad had traces of Scot in his blood, but was primarily English. My mother was Austrian and Greek. This "Farewell to the Greys" record was my singular first exposure, and it totally blew me away. My parents stood, wide eyed, at their six year old youngest son, ranting relentlessly about wanting to become a bagpipe player. I sat for hours listening to this record over and over, and studying its cover which displayed Lady Elizabeth Butler's "Scotland Forever" painting. (My wife Laurie and I had just recently decided I should have a print of that painting one day.) 47 years later, I have had a life of piping in contests and parades. I have taught many students and made countless friends. I have been Pipe Major of a couple of pipe bands, and I even played in a Celtic rock group. Today I make my living from making and repairing bagpipes. And it all started with THAT record. Amazing Grace is the most overplayed, or at least "over requested" bagpipe tune. Pipers everywhere roll their eyes heavenward every time some sweet little old lady asks to hear it. I will never be able to stop loving it though. It was "really cool" to be able connect with the current Pipe Major of the band that so profoundly influenced the direction of my life. Pipe Major Duncan, congratulations once again. Cheers!

The results are in!!!! The winners of The Shasta Piping Society Piobearachd Composition Contest have been announced. The winners are, in order of placing:... 1st, PM Ben Duncan 2nd, Jori Chisolm 3rd, (a tie) John Dew and Zephan Knichel Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all who submitted entries!!! Thank you to the panel of judges: Bill Livingstone, Chris Terry, Greg Wilson and Rob Wallace who also hosted the event on Piping Press.

It was time to learn a new skill. Over the past few years, I have done many restorations on vintage bagpipes from the first half of the last century. On many occasions, these old sets were missing ferrules, or had ferrules that were in very poor condition. I often found myself "scrounging" through my collection of new or used mounts to find suitably sized parts for whichever set I was working on. I would frequently have to modify the spare ferrules by shortening them, cut...ting off the beads and re-cutting the little decorative grooves. (Many of these old sets did not have beaded ferrules.) While this worked out well on most occasions, having to depend on this dwindling collection of spares was both limiting and worrisome. I needed to learn how to fabricate these parts. While it is a process I "feared" for years, it has turned out to be something quite enjoyable and satisfying. I had to dip my toe into some basic welding techniques, and learn how to coerce a strip of sheet nickel into a uniform round tube. I'm still a beginner in this particular craft, but the success of my first attempts has given me the courage to move forward. I need to buy a few specific tools to speed the process up, but I'm becoming confident enough to try this with sheet Sterling fairly soon.

Every cloud has a silver lining... While you are locked down in your homes, going stir crazy, those of you with music talent and creativity have an opportunity (and the time) to contribute once again to the "great music." The Piobaireachd Composition Contest is on again.... The contest is the brainchild of my good friend Steve Rooklidge. Steve is known for his popular radio show called "The Piping Hour", and he is the man behind the Shasta piping Society. I am grateful, once again, for being invited to be part of presenting the contest. The contest is being conducted through "The Piping Press" and Editor Robert Wallace. Rob is also the President of the Piobaireachd Society, and he is one of the judges, once again, along with Chris Terry and Greg Wilson. The deadline for entries is Aug 1st. More details in the link below.

A bit of a milestone for the Burley Bagpipe Company. My dear friend and loyal customer David Warren, commissioned the first ever set of Burley bagpipes made fr...om Polyacetyl. The creation process was definitely a learning experience. This first prototype was turned on a wood lathe using traditional tools and techniques. They were made to the same dimensions as my Blackwood pipes. The first poly Burley chanter, to go with this set, will follow in a few weeks. Due to the nature of the material, the production processes for a poly chanter are a little different than for a Blackwood one. I tried the drones for the first time on Thursday afternoon. They were fitted with a set of brand new Kinnaird Evolution reeds, a Bannatyne synthetic hybrid bag and a "Moose valve" in the blowpipe stock. Initial strike in resulted in me being pretty wide eyed. The sound was not just "really good for plastic pipes", but really good PERIOD. Very robust with beautiful complexity in the harmonics. The roof of my house did finally come back down and settle in place afterwards. :) This is an exciting time!!! This set represents the first move toward an expansion in the Burley Bagpipe Company's product offering. Stay tuned... I cannot extend enough gratitude to David Warren. He has been an very encouraging and trusting supporter of the "new kid on the block" in the pipemaking world, since we met a few years ago. He also owns a set of Blackwood Burleys. This plastic set is to be his "Mexico set" for when he heads south for the winter.

Another Uilleann practice set out the door. This one has European Boxwood mounts, and it is configured for a left handed player. (Right hand on top.) The chanter is fully keyed, but the key positions had to be reversed, and as such the F-natural key (the little curved one on the side) had to be made custom.... It made this one a little hard to test. The customer says it is just fine though.