Quick March

Sorry it’s taken so long to get a recap of the Celtic Evening performance out but as many of you know my mother was admitted to the hospital last Saturday night and is not doing too well. Thanks to everyone who has wished her and I well. We appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers. Now on to the show.

As someone who has never done anything like this in their adult life I can’t lie and say I didn’t have any nerves because I did. What’s different about this and other performances is that you know everyone is looking at you and you are there in the wide open. People paid to see you and watch you. After our first set I calmed down some but never settled down all the way.

The evening go off to a rough start as Karlin with the Nelson Academy of Irish Dance broke her foot that day. Needless to say they couldn’t perform that evening. Watching the Amelia County Boosters set up and get ready was something. When they said refreshments I was expecting candy bars and soda not hot dogs, nachos, barbque, and homemade pies and cakes. The Societies arrived and set up their tables. From what I understand they all had luck in gaining new members, including ourselves.

Show time and as mentioned I couldn’t have been more nervous. Ralph our MC for the evening was right there with me. He had never done any thing like this before either. You wouldn’t have know it though he was charming, funny and warm the whole evening. Other than a few problems with some of the local dialect he was smashing. Tuning went well except for Tim who had an issue with his reed and then a disastrous problem with his bag during his solo on Amazing Grace. Tom does such a great job of getting us all in tune and making us sound like one big bagpipe.

I can’t wait for the DVD to see the St. Andrew’s Society of DC Color Guard. The members were just a bunch of nice guys and from what I heard very impressive. After Ralph’s intro the curtains opened and as we marched into our X formation the crowd cheered and we were off. Our first sets went well and then we performed with Su Tarr for a few numbers and then left the stage to her. Su was amazing. I absolutely love celtic fiddle and Su was very good. Su extended her set to make up for the dancers and and then we came back out to wrap up the Irish portion of the show and the 1st Half.

During the intermission other than finding water my wife found me to show me the state of our youngest daughter which seemed to be deteriorating by the second. Tom’s wife Annette graciously agreed to sit with Rhane, as Rhane wanted to stay and watch the second half, so Cathy could take Willow to the doctor. She commented on how well things went and sounded in the first half. Willow tested negative for all the bad things just a virus she didn’t shake until Thursday.

All in all not too bad a start. The Scottish Country Dancers of Richmond got us off to a good start in the second half. John Turner was playing fiddle for them and was equally amazing. I don’t know what it is about the Scottish Country Dancing but it takes me to a place in my minds eye where I can almost picture the Friday/Saturday night caileidh and the music and dancing that ensues. After a couple of sets from SALPD it was time for Mary Smith to sing. I’ve seen Mary before on several occasions and love listening to her explain the story/history behind the songs and sing and she never disappoints. Back out for the home stretch with Highland Cathedral, Military Set, MacKinzie, Amazing Grace, Set One, Auld Lang Syne and the March off.

What an evening! I was flat exhausted by the end. As we marched out of the auditorium we were cheered and congratulated for a fine job. The boosters gave us water and the evening was over. All in all a great job from everyone.

My brother Scott, the bass drummer in the band, teaches biology at the High School in Amelia. He has heard nothing but good things all week long and had people ask him about the various groups involved. I think we made quite the impression on the town of Amelia.

On behalf of the band I need to thank a lot of people. First off are all the folks who came out to the show. Thank you for your interest and support. Thanks to the Amelia County High School Boosters with out whom this wouldn’t have happened. A BIG THANK YOU to all the performers and Societies that helped us pull this event off. Thanks to all the band students who helped handle set up, stage and logistics. Thanks to David Ramsey for taking photos. At least there’s no cobble stone to trip you up in the auditorium. Thanks to Jim for handling the technical side of recording this event and the lighting/sound. Thanks to Don Raybould for handling the DVD recording. Hopefully we’ll have recording both CD and DVD soon. We look forward to working with the various performers again and bringing this to other schools around the city/state.

Thanks to Tim for all his hard work in bringing this together. From the staging to helping coordinate the talent to making sure things went like they were supposed to amazing job. Pipe Major can be a pretty thankless job sometimes but I hope you know you are appreciated and doing a good job.

I’d also like to thank my band mates. We put in a lot of work and did our best. I think we did a great job and I couldn’t be more proud to be a member of this band. We have a lot of students some who are just getting on the pipes, some who are almost ready to get up on the pipes and others who are working to get to that stage. We are all a group and look out for each other no matter what happens. I think we are doing our ancestors proud and are more than living up to our stated purpose of carrying on the Highland traditions.

We look forward to seeing everyone at our next performances whether it’s at the Roanoake St. Patrick’s Festival (where our friend Burt Mitchell asked us to come and where somehow Tim has been asked to be the MC for the event) or on St. Patrick’s Day at not one but two locations for Capital Ale House (Midloathian and Innsbrook) We hope to see you there. Slainte!!

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