The Devil's Tailors Scottish Celtic - News

In the Studio

2011-06-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Tailors are (finally) recording our first album! It will cover our oldest repertoire, the stuff we were playing pretty much when Susanne joined the band, leaving us with an additional album's worth of material for the next effort.

This past weekend, Jim came over to my house and we laid down five scratch tracks and four guitar tracks, and on Tuesday night Chris came over and we recorded a click track for one of his songs. Jim will be returning Sunday morning to record three more click tracks and four guitar tracks. And I've got a workaround in place for a click track for sets where we're changing tempo, like those with a strathspey/reel and/or march/strathspey transition.

We're very excited to be finally doing this, and hope to have an album to sell in the late fall. Not soon enough for the Virginia Games, probably, but soon after that.

New Performance Dates

2011-05-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

We've just booked some interesting gigs. We'll be playing the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Diversity Day festival on June 8th, with Lilt's Keith Carr sitting in for Chris Lindsay (who's on travel), the Homespun Ceilidh Band's Jennifer Lubell joining us for some steps & bodhran, along with Rosemary Hall, who'll be returning to play with us for a third time.

On July 6th, we'll be playing an employee picnic for the folks at the Smithsonian on the DC National Mall, playing on one of the stages put up for the Folklife Festival (which will be on break). A lot of acts put in bids for this one, and we are very pleased to be asked to perform.

We're also finalizing a concert-on-the-lawn at the Carlyle House in Alexandria, VA. This is a new concert series they're putting on, and is open and free to the public, so come on out. Dates are still being discussed, but we're probably looking at late July.

We're also likely to play a birthday party in August, and are looking at a possible pub gig, before the Virginia Scottish Games over Labor Day weekend.

Some New Tunes

2011-05-18T05:46:00.001-07:00

The Devil's Tailors will begin looking aggressively at new festivals & venues to play, and we're hoping to be performing a lot more in the fall.

In preparation for this, we've dusted off a few sets we haven't played in a while, specifically a great - and very challenging - set of stathspeys and reels in C and G (major and minor), a set of very elegant Scots Measures in D minor, a hornpipe/reel set, some old Highland jigs, and a set of equally old slip jigs. And a few songs we've performed a couple of times but really are looking to polish up.

Fun times are afoot!

A Proud Moment

2011-04-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

I had the good fortune to catch Laura Cortese "and friends" (Natalie & Brittany Haas, and Mariel Vandersteel) last week at The Lyceum in Alexandria. Great show, mostly focused on Laura's songs, showing Laura's continued evolution away from the strict Scottish/Celtic idiom.

Before the show, Kent Murray (who produced the event) was making announcements, and asked Sarah Brenzo, president of the Celtic Society of Southern Maryland, who was playing at their upcoming festival. After listing a couple of names, Sarah, sitting right behind me, proudly added, "The Devil's Tailors are also playing!". Kent nodded, and asked, "Great. Is Peter here?"

Thought that was a nice plug for a band yet to break out, like ours.

-Peter

Micing the Smallpipes

2011-04-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

One of the persistent challenges I've faced is how to amplify all my various instruments, and mute them individually where necessary. I've pretty much worked out the system for my fiddle, big pipes, and finally the flute. I use a 4-input mini-mixer to balance the levels of the various instruments, and a volume pedal (for the fiddle) and stomp boxes to mute the various channels.

The smallpipes have been a tough nut to crack. Previously we'd given them their own vocal mic channel, shared with Chris' bodhran. The levels on these two instruments were so different, though, that it proved impractical. And there's the issue of the sound guy forgetting to turn up the smallpipe mic (as happened at Southern Maryland last year). Chris loaned me a wireless vocal mic package to try to use, and we thought we'd got it balanced in time for the Tartan Day gig - but the mic was so hot it ended up being a feedback magnet.

So I'm going to try a new approach for Southern Maryland this year: I will run a vocal mic through my mini-mixer, and have a dedicated stand for it, which will also host the mic stand clips for my whistles and flutes. The mic and cable will be stored in my pedal case, and the levels pre-set, so it'll be transparent to the sound guy. It would also facilitate me using the border pipes as well, which I'd like to do on Tramps & Hawkers eventually.

Wish me luck!

In other news, look for some minor site updates this afternoon in the "Calendar" and "The Band" sections.

-Peter

Tartan Day 2011 & Band Update

2011-04-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

The National Tartan Day Festival in Old Town Alexandria was one of the more challenging gigs we've played this year, mainly because of some very Scottish weather! Despite a forecast of 18% chance of 0.01" of rain through the day, we alternated between bouts of pouring rain and sunshine through the whole day. Much of the day was spent waiting for breaks in the rain to bring out our performers. Scheduling conflicts reduced our turnout of performers this year, but we had good crowds considering the weather.

The City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums put in a fantastic performance during one of our dry spells, and we did a long set early in the afternoon and a short set to wrap up the show. It was a lot of fun to have our friends at the Carlyle House, Celtic Society of Southern Maryland, and Virginia Scottish Games in the audience to hear us, and we appear in the video that the Washington Times put up, shown below:

Especially fun was having fiddler Rosemary Hall play with us again, and we've invited her to join the band for all future gigs for which she's available (what with starting college in the fall!).

We've taken something of a hiatus, performing only two public events, plus a birthday party and a Burns supper, in the last year, but we're back and trying to get into venues and festivals, and are hoping to be playing a lot more in the last half of this year. We've added new songs to our repertoire: Hi Ri Him Bo, John Barleycorn, and Craigieburn Wood; and are working on some new instrumentals, specifically some slip jigs, a hornpipe/jig set and a hornpipe/reel set.

And it's finally that time. Soon we will sit down and begin to record our first album.

New Shows!

2011-03-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Tailors are coming off a bit of a break and are playing shows again. Come check us out at Market Square in Old Town Alexandria, VA on April 2nd for the National Tartan Day celebration, and on April 30th at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival!

Lots of New Happenings

2010-03-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings, all!

The Devil's Tailors played a fantastic gig at The Royal Mile Pub on January 9th. We started a bit late, but the house was packed almost until we finished up around midnight, and had a great reception! We debuted a lot of new material, including "Ye Banks and Braes", our Shetland-inspired take on "The Bonny Ship the Diamond", a 17th century song called "The Mosstrooper's Lament", and the original version of "Auld Lang Syne".

I'd like to apologize now the the server who tripped on one of our monitors, causing the breakage of a plate, delay to a customer's meal, and the loss of a perfectly good fish & chips. To prevent a repeat of this situation, I have purchased some smaller ones, which we tried out last night with great success.

Driving into DC the second of this winter's four snowmageddons, on January 30th we followed up with a Burns Supper and Ceilidh for the Edinburgh University Alumni Association of DC, with Liz Donaldson joining us on piano for some dance sets: The Gay Gordons, Strip the Willow, Dashing White Sergeant, and The Eightsome Reel. In addition to the brilliantly fun dances, we got to play some slow tunes not normally in our repertoire during dinner, and debuted the Burns song "John Barleycorn", in addition to "Ye Banks & Braes". Thanks to the Edinburgh U. Alumni for having us, thanks for dancing to us, and we hope to see you again!

And we've got some great new gigs on the horizon.

There's the National Tartan Day Festival at Market Square in Old Town, Alexandria on April 3rd - a staple for us, and we'll be sharing the stage with a pipe band, highland dancers, Scottish Country Dancers, and possibly another band (more details as groups confirm).

Then a week later, we're playing a tartan ball in Arlington, again with Liz, for the St. Andrew's University Alumni Association of DC.

On April 24th, we've been invited to take the Pub Stage at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival at Jefferson Patterson Park in St. Leonard, MD. We're very excited about heading down for this one!

Then we return to our home port of The Royal Mile Pub on May 22d with guest fiddler Katy Summerlin, and again on July 24th.

After that, it's the Virginia Scottish Games and more fun through fall 2010. So keep watching, because great things are happening!

New Dates

2010-01-06T09:18:00.001-08:00

2010 is going to be the Year of the Tailor!

The Devil's Tailors is proud to announce that we've booked several engagements; we'll be playing the Royal Mile this Saturday (January 9th), and again in May and July. We're playing the National Tartan Day festival in April, and the Virginia Scottish Games again in September. We're also playing a private Burns Supper at the end of January with caller and master dance-pianist Liz Donaldson.

We're also trying to book another couple of festivals and pub gigs from February through June, stay tuned and check our calendar page.

The Devil's Tailors play the Royal Mile Pub

2009-09-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

We had the great honor of being invited to play the Royal Mile Pub for the party celebrating the transition to its new owner, Michael Moore. Michael and the Royal Mile sponsored the fiddle tent at the Virginia Scottish Games this year, and we were thrilled to return the favor by playing the party in his honor.

Also thanks to Barbara Saliunas (who came away from the Potomac Valley Scottish Fiddle Competition with an arm full of prizes just last Sunday!) for filling in for Susanne, who couldn't make it.

We had a blast, and the audience and pub loved us, and really look forward to playing there again in the future!

The Virginia Scottish Games

2009-09-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

Two shows at the Virginia Scottish Games left us ready for more. We shared the stage with some great acts, Dileab Phriseil, The Potomac Valley Scottish Fiddle Club, Terpsichore, Peat & Barley, The Homespun Ceilidh Band, Becky Ross w/ Liz Donaldson, and the teriffic trio of Andrew Dodds, Liam Andrews, and Collier Hyams.

Saturday was the wilder gig, with a tent flowing to capacity and more; but we had a great crowd Sunday as well. Just someone remind me not to wear ankle socks with the kilt ever again.

Pictures over on our page on Facebook, and possibly some video soon!

A Diabolical Summer

2009-08-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings, all!

Well, we've been quiet since our most recent gig at Celebrate Fairfax! But we've been busy.

In the last couple of months, we've been solidifying our instrumental repertoire, and looking toward some future sets. But we've mostly been working on new songs! We currently perform five songs, and we've got another five that are almost ready to debut, and another half-dozen we might see by year's end. At that point, we'll be about 50/50 on songs versus instrumentals.

What does this mean? Well, it means that we'll be booking more pub gigs, longer gigs and concerts, and gigging more frequently. And... maybe an album on the distant horizon...

In the meantime, we've got two shows coming up at the Virginia Scottish Games over Labor Day weekend, and possibly a pub gig on 9/9. Stay tuned for details!

Peter

The Tailors in Pictures

2009-07-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

National Tartan Day 2009, Alexandria, VA
L to R: Chris Lindsay, Peter Walker, Jim Stimson, and Susanne Bard

Celebrate Fairfax 2009

Celebrate Fairfax!

2009-07-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone!

For those who saw us at Celebrate Fairfax!, thanks for coming out. We had a great time. We were in the food court, which gave us some great traffic, and had some people who'd heard us last year come back to join us again.

The Devil's Tailors even had to play unplugged for a bit, when our generator died on us, but we had good fun, and hope to come back next year.

I'll post pictures soon!

National Tartan Day 2009

2009-04-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Tailors proudly returned to Market Square in Alexandria, VA for the National Tartan Day festival. In addition to ourselves, The City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums performed several sets, some with the Thistle Highland Dancers, and we had a contingent from the Northern Virginia branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society come out, and they stuck around and danced for our show.

It was a gorgeous day, cool and partly cloudy. The only weather issue was the terrific wind, which at one point, blew over a music stand with great force, missing my fiddle by inches.

But that didn't keep away the crowds, and we had vendors, clan societies, and representatives from several local Highland Games associations. A grand time was had by all, and we're looking forward again to next year.

We had several of Susanne's friends out to take pictures for us, and I'm hoping to get a gallery up soon. We also recorded the show, so I'll be looking for snippets for the audio page of the website.

Thanks to everyone who came!

A New Deal For Us

2009-01-30T07:26:00.000-08:00

We graduated from festivals to pub gigs on Burns Nicht, sharing a stage at The New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, MD, with the Homespun Ceilidh Band to celebrate the poet's birthday. We launched the evening, Homespun came on for a fun set (I started an an dro line for as long as it lasted). When they finished, I asked Trix up to join me for Auld Lang Syne (to the original tune), and The Devil's Tailors were up again for an even more rousing set.

Poor Jim, he plays in both bands and didn't get a break at all - on top of that, he plays solo lute there on Sunday mornings.

We want to offer our sincerest thanks to our new friends at The New Deal Cafe, and we hope to see you all again soon!

Virginia Scottish Games Shows

2008-09-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Tailors played our first Highland Games, the Virginia Scottish Games, this past weekend. And we had a blast! The games returned to Sky Meadows again this year, a wonderful setting out west of DC in Faquier county, with rolling hills that immediately suggested the Highlands. The weather, not so much. Things were hot and muggy on Saturday, and hotter if less muggy on Sunday. It was a great games, with Rathkeltair and Alex Beaton on the main stage, and along with us, Elke Baker, the Potomac Valley Scottish Fiddle Club, The Winchester Celtic Circle, Dileab Phriseil, and The Wise Maids, along with Becky Ross w/ Julie Gorka and Rosemary Hall on Saturday, and with Liz Donaldson on Sunday, to play for the NoVA branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, who demonstrated for us. The fiddle contest Saturday morning was equally fun, with some great talent turning out to contend for the title.

I'm not ashamed to admit we got the gig because I was running the fiddle tent. So, as Chris pointed out, this made us the house band.

We were running behind on Saturday, and did an abbreviated set at 4:30. The games was thinning out, but we had a small but loyal crowd, who sat with us through a sudden rainstorm. When the rain began, I began to wave to Andy, who was working sound, to get instruments and cables out of the rain. Andy saw my gesticulation and asked "What? What am I supposed to turn up?" But it still went very well, and though Jim's cittern cable and Chris' drums were out in the rain for a few moments, nothing was damaged, and Jim wasn't electrocuted.

The Sunday show went without a hitch, and because we went on mid-day, we had a really good turnout. We were able to play a full hour, and were very tight and energetic. Chris and I were really clicking on the pipe sets, and I was feeling a fun wildness on the fiddle sets.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and sticking around, including the little girl who danced to our music on Sunday, and the fiddle club regulars who braved the rain for us.

If I come across pics, I'll share them!

Susanne Bard on fiddle

2008-08-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Because Andrew can't make the upcoming Virginia Scottish Games gigs, we've asked Susanne Bard to join us on fiddle. Susanne is a regular at our Royal Mile session, and we're very excited to have her on board.

Andrew is going to be playing with 50 Man Machine, playing solo, and is putting together a string band at GMU. We all wish him the best, and look for his shows!

Celebrate Fairfax! More like Celebrate Heatstroke!

2008-06-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

This was one of those gigs that could have gone a lot worse.

The Celebrate Fairfax! festival was a great one. I spent Sunday working the Virginia Scottish Games tent, and got to see a bit of it, which was impossible on Saturday. But it was possibly the hottest day of the year, and that was saying a lot.

I came straight from an outdoor wedding in 104 degree heat to this gig, and I was boiling. They combined two alternating stages so that performers could stay out of the sun, so we had to set up while a juggler performed - on the same stage. And no time for a sound check.

Things didn't start well. We tried to debut The New Reels, and things went badly quickly. I think I was heat-stricken, and simply forgot how to play the bagpipe. It was ugly. Chris and Andrew did a great job carrying us to the end. I recovered my composure while Chris sang Killiecrankie, then we ramped things up to a great conclusion with The Devil's Reels, Cairn o' Mount, and The Virgin Wedding Night.

So 4 out of 5. Under the circumstances, I'll take that.

Another act requested our Sunday slot, which was probably for the best. We were all pretty tapped out. But it was fun, and we'd love to come back and do the festival again in the future. Just let's hope the weather is nicer!

New Lineup - Andrew Dodds on fiddle

2008-06-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

We unfortunately lost Lauren for the upcoming Celebrate Fairfax! gig, but we have retained the services of Andrew Dodds, recently of Iona, on fiddle. Andrew's a brilliant fiddler, and I've had the pleasure to play with him in a gig for 50 Man Machine, and to compete against (and lose to!) him on many occasions. Alas, he's only with us on a per-gig basis, as he is swamped with projects of his own, but it's a pleasure to have him on board.

We all wish Lauren the best, as she's heading off to college this fall!

Devil's Tailors - Two New Shows

2008-04-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

We're now confirmed to play June 7th at 6:30 PM on the Folk Stage at the Celebrate Fairfax! outdoor festival in Fairfax, VA. They're also trying to get us to play another time-slot the next day, Sunday, June 8th. It's a big festival, and should be loads of fun.

National Tartan Day 2008 - The Big Debut!

2008-04-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it was officially our second outing under the name "The Devil's Tailors", but it felt more like our first real debut. This year, we had a full band and a nice long set.

I spent the morning setting up, and then played for the Alexandria branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society with Julie Gorka. Then it was time for us to get going. Rhianon had to cancel, because their singers all had an upper respiratory flu. So the stage manager (me!) awarded us all their time. We had prepared an hour and a half's worth of show, and we got to use every bit of it.

The National Tartan Day festival takes place in Market Square in Alexandria, with a number of vendors and representative from Scottish heritage societies and clans setting up tents on the square. It's a very open area with a lot of foot traffic, and the weather was wonderful this year.

We were excited to take the stage, and had a blast. Almost everything went very well, with only a few snafus.

The most difficult moment was during The Devil's Reels - three (three!) of my fiddle's pegs come loose and the strings un-spooled. So wile I was desperately trying to re-tune while Lauren carried on, I told the band to skip The Dram Shell, which Lauren didn't know yet, and came in a couple notes into Timour the Tartar to finish the set. Also, at one point in the set, Chris (who was on bodhran) dropped his tipper! So though it all worked out okay in the end, we now have officially declared this our "cursed" set.

We had an excellent reception, especially for the pipes+fiddle sets, and the St. Andrew's Society folks were very enthusiastic.

My friend Holly from Fark.com came out to see us, and she sent pictures. I'll try to get them up ASAP.

I forgot to switch the input on my laptop from the internal mic (which picked up the monitors and stage) to line in (which was what the audience heard), so only the pipe sets came out decently. So here they are:

The Famous Reels (right click, save file to your computer)
The Muckin' Jigs (right click, save file to your computer)
The Virgin Wedding (right click, save file to your computer)

A great debut!

National Tartan Day 2007 - Our First Gig

2007-04-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Tailors officially performed their first gig at the National Tartan Day celebration at Market Square in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, on April 7th, 2007 (a day after National Tartan Day proper. The line-up for this gig included myself, Chris Lindsay on guitar and bodhran, and a virtual Anders Johannson on guitar for Cairn o' Mount (courtesy of a 2005 recording, iTunes, and my Mac laptop).

Massive props to Chris, who worked sound all day and was spot on with Flower of Scotland, as well as my friend Anand Rao, who roadied most excellently for us, and my mother Nancy, who was Jane-on-the-spot with the hot drinks to keep us going. And, of course, to Chris' wife Christine, who let us borrow her husband all day despite having other plans.

It was a day of firsts for me. First frontman gig. First lead vocal gig. First entertainment chair gig. First stage manager gig. First time out for my PA. First time out for my new all-synthetic bagpipes.

The day was cold and blustery, with wind chills in the low 30s and wind speeds in the upper teens, but we made it through, and kept the entertainment coming and on time.

The reviews of our performance were pretty good - the main problems were with the sound setup. When I did Cairn o' Mount, we forgot to turn up the fiddle in the main relative to the vocals, and the recording of Anders' guitar in the monitor. And I found myself unable to do much at all with the pipes because of the cold (see below).

I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that I need 2 hours to set up, which will give me a 30 minute wind-down time and emergency buffer. I learned that my 2 x 400 Watt powered mixer wasn't nearly enough power to run two main speakers and two stage monitors - so I'll be buying a rack and a power amp. I learned that I can get all the band gear into my PT cruiser, if I have another car for instruments and bandmates. I learned the importance of rigorous, not rushed, sound checks. I learned that I can't stand in the cold for hours and expect my lip to hold on a blowpipe, or my fingers to be able to find the chanter holes (but the all-synthetic bagpipe performed admirably!). Looking at the picture, I realized that Chris must plug his guitar in (rather than use an instrument mic), and that we should be closer together on stage.

So despite the weather and the cancellations of other performers, and some technical problems, it all worked out great in the end.

Afterwards, we all went to O'Connell's a couple blocks away, where - once nice and warmed up - I entertained the crowds with fiddle, smallpipes, and Highland Pipes.

A hell of a day.

Welcome to The Devil's Tailors Show Blog

2007-04-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

We've got a lot of great things to come, so keep watching!