How's It Sounding?

If you have listened to my tracks “Not Your Grandmother’s Ireland” and “Not Your Grandfather’s Ireland”, then you should know that there is a spot in my musical heart for the sound of bagpipes and other Celtic sounds.  Now while I normally don’t talk about music on this blog, I recently came across a performer that is unique enough to be mentioned, and that is The Badpiper – “the world’s only flame-throwing, punk rock bagpiper.”

I personally am not the biggest fan of punk rock.  However, as mentioned in my article How to make your Music Sound Different, I’m not opposed to listening to something new.  ACDC songs are an undeniable classic, so when I heard some guy with bagpipes would be performing “Thunderstruck”, it was worth giving it a listen, and I’m glad I did.

On The Badpiper’s audition for Australian’s Got Talent, he said that he was “taking the world’s most annoying instrument, and turning it into something fantastic.”  Indeed he has.  After 25 years of playing the bagpipes, he has surely come up with something unique here.

The 37 year old, fourth generation Scottish Australian musician currently has three albums out.  All the track names are unique, but many of them are covers/renditions of well known songs such as When the Saints go Marching In, We Will Rock You, Auld Lang Syne, and of course Thunderstruck. 

All of The Badpiper Albums are currently priced at $29AUD (Australian dollars) which is currently (as of 6-30-13) $26.56USD.  In my opinion, they are a little high priced for today’s musical market, but they are quite different, even though you can’t see the flames on the audio tracks.

The Badpiper’s album “Burn”

So whether or not you like punk rock, bagpipes, or fire, The Badpiper is worth listening to.  While the concept of using bagpipes in modern music is not something unheard of, it is not commonly done, and it sure as heck isn’t done with fire!