The Smallpiper Blog

Hello!
It's been a while since we last blogged. We've had our heads down writing and rehearsing for the new album. Still feels like we're not ready and we're about to record. Sigh! We'll keep you updated with how we get on! In the mean time, we've made a freebies page on our website! We hope to upload something new and fun there each month. So check out the page to see what offering we've given you this month!

We'll be back very soon with reports from the studio! In the meantime you can catch us at these venues:

30.01.09 Baccapipes Folk Club, Keighley
03.02.09 Dartford Folk Club, Dartford
06.02.09 Norwich Folk Club, Norwich
13.02.09 Waveney Folk Club, Lowestoft, Suffolk
18.02.09 Clarence Folk Club, The Clarence, Blackpool, 01722 683027
22.02.09 Great Bardfield Guitar Festival

:))
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
We've finally made it onto iTunes! You can now buy tracks or the whole album Twiddle On! It's a compilation of selected tunes from On The Mash and Thumb Twiddling. Of course the original albums are still available, but with limited stocks, so if you'd like the hard copy, best get in there soon before they all go!
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!

Autumn is finally upon us. It's getting dark in the evenings and it's getting cold. We've stacked our wood and are ready for our first fire of the evening. We're in the middle of our mini-tour:

04.10.08 Village Hall in Etal, Northumberland
05.10.08 Guisborough Folk Club, Guisborough, N Yorks

We're now really in the thick of preparing for the recording in January. New photos, new design, new tunes. We've already debuted one new nyckelharpa tune, but we're going to 'outing' the new songs and tunes at a couple of local clubs between now and christmas, so catch us informally at the Headingham Music Night and the High Barn Folk Club.

We've finally hit the digital age with digital sales of a compilation album called Twiddle On! (a mix of Thumb Twiddling and on the mash) available now on CDbaby.
We hope to see you somewhere on the road!
Take care
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
We've had a busy September, mostly trying to get to the gym to get ourselves more in shape, but it's been busy none the less! Today we finally finished one of our summer projects and got it in the post to it's destination in the good old USofA. I won't say any more, but just keep your eye out in iTunes...

We're doing a fantastic gig tomorrow evening (Thursday 18th) a project put together by the wonderful Terry up in Bury St. Edmonds, The Milk Maid Disability Folk Club. Tomorrow is the second club evening and we're very excited to have been asked. We're taking a bunch of extra instruments for the evening, including my two cittras and border pipes. So if you'd like the chance of seeing these instruments get an airing come along! Details are on the Milk Maid website.

See you soon!
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
I'm sure everyone will be pleased to hear that the operation on the nyckelharpa went well. He's all patched up, but did get very naked, the sympathetic resonating strings where all cut off and a patch put above a new sound post. Fingers crossed! We loved the device that Olle used to take the sympathetic strings off, an electric drill with attachment. Jonny has now made an attachment for a mini-electric drill, I can't wait to try it out next time I have to change the strings. I also had a second nyckelharpa lesson with Peter, which was great fun. (Must practise more scales!) Now we're back and working hard on some new projects for the autumn. You can catch our podcast interview recorded at the Leigh Folk Festival. Then you can catch us at the following places in the next little while:

29 - 31.08.08 Fylde Folk Festival Fylde, Fleetwood
07.09.08 WoodFest, Hatfield Forest, Takely
11.09.08 Stortfolk Music Club, Bishops Stortford, Essex
18.09.08 The Milkmaid Disability Folk Club, Bury St Edmonds
21.09.08 Swanfolk: Swan in the Rushes Loughborough
22.09.08 Colchester Folk Club, Colchester, Essex 01206 500900
02.10.08 Islington Folk Club, Islington, London
04.10.08 Village Hall in Etal, Northumberland
05.10.08 Guisborough Folk Club, Guisborough, N Yorks

Hope to see you there! :)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
We've put up a new photo gallery, just some pictures from places we've been so far this year. It had been too long since our last gallery! We are now practising really really hard on new tune sets and a new major ballad. (We've been working on the story of this for some time now, it looks like we're nearly decided on how the story should pan out!) Studio time is booked for next winter. The next nyckelharpa lesson is looming fast and not enough scales have been practised! An exciting new nyckelharpa tune is nearly ready to go. All exciting things and lots of practise!
:))
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
Having driven back from Cumbria to Essex, we had a great evening at the Milkmaid Folk Club in Suffolk. We then drove through the night to get back up to Cumbria for the Brampton Live!

We had a fantastic weekend. The two high points were meeting up with another nyckelharpa player playing an instrument that he made himself. I was totally impressed! On Sunday we performed a set with the fabulous Cloudstreet. We ran our video camera and you can see the footage on our youtube blog. It was great to be on stage with such great musicians and to have such a full fantastic vocal sound. We loved playing with a 'cellist, to have the parts that are on our albums played live isn't something we can do very often! If anyone has any pictures of the five of us on stage we'd love to have a copy!
We're now out of our really busy summer period and are starting to think about recording an EP with nyckelharpa on it, so watch this space for details. We might set up a recording studio cam, so let us know if you'd think that's a good idea!
Take care for now!

:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
We had a lovely experience this lunchtime. We were shop dummies! Well, moving playing ones anyway. We were part of the Living Windows held at the Lanes Shopping centre in Carlisle. We got to be in the window of Miss Selfridges with speakers outside the shop and we played away to the shoppers for an hour and a half. The best part I think was watching the passers by listen to the music and then jump as they spotted us in the window playing. Opposite us in New Look was an artist, Carl Sowerby, he was busily drawing onto a canvas filling in people as they sat for him. We got to be in the picture too, we'd love to see it when it's finished! This was part of a 10 day festival at The Lanes, you can see a pianist, a violin trio and many more things there over the course of the next week and a bit. Tonight we're playing at the Carlisle Music Festival in the Tithe Barn in Carlisle, should be a very nice evening. In the meantime we're giggling over being shop dummies! If you spotted us and have a picture of the two of us in the window, we'd love to see it! In the meantime, can you spot us in the picture?

Hello!
We've been having a very busy July and I've got a little behind with our blog! What a fantastic little festival Saul was. We had a wonderful time! The rainy weather couldn't dampen our spirits and the wind on top of the Oliver Cromwell top deck only took the whistle notes and not our enthusiasm! (I do wish I'd worn trousers though and not a skirt!!!!) We must thank the people that came to see us play in the Sabrina instead of going to see Show of Hands, thank you for staying!!! Other artists that we saw included James, Nancy and Rob and the KTB. Well worth seeing anytime! We also met up briefly with our friends Cloudstreet which was lovely. We talked a little about next weeks collaboration, we're practising very hard! After four fantastic sets (well the audience were fantastic!) we managed to drive of site in the pouring rain and not get stuck in the mud.
This week I had the sound post moved on the nyckelharpa. This was scary and tiring! I don't have a whizzy tool, so each of the 16 strings had to be manually loosened and then tightened back up again. The sound has change slightly and the A string seems to have been 'released' in timbre. I'm getting used to it. An overhaul for the instrument is being booked for August to try to fix some of the loose rattles, sticky keys and missing screws. Another lesson is in the offing (although I've not practised my scales anything like enough, but I have written several tunes!) The new tunes should be in the set by the end of August. We're also planning to record an EP with the nyckelharpa on it to tide us over until we get into the studio next spring. Watch this space!

We're sat in the campervan catching up on the blog at the Bromsgrove Festival (so no pictures for this blog entry to try to conserve mobile phone bill), the clouds are looming menacingly over head, but we're determined that we're not going to get stuck in the mud! This festival is set in a marquee at the back of a pub, sessions in the pub, concert in the marquee, beer tent, food van. What more does one need? (Other than sun!) We're going to put up a gallery of photos very soon. If anyone has any pictures or movie clips, we'll add them!

Have a good weekend!
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
We had an awesome festival this weekend, the St Brigid Festival, in The Netherlands, pretty much as far south as you can get! The weather was perfect, the arena was so pretty, with the cows looking on from the next door field, fantastic acts and great sound. It seemed like the whole village turned out for the festival. To our shame everyone spoke English, but I did at least learn to say Dank u veel. We'd like to give a really big thank you to all the organisers for making us feel so welcome! The theme of the weekend was Irish music so we had to great nights of sessioning of Irish music, my flute and Irish tunes got a really good workout! We met, the Whitby Catch, Tom, Chris and Drumlin, all smashing people! A really great weekend!

Onto a busy July for us now, you can catch us at:
04 - 06.07.08 Saul Canal Festival Saul, Glocs
12.07.08 Bromsgrove Folk Festival, Bromsgrove
16.07.08 Carlisle Music Festival, Carlisle, Cumbria
18.07.08 Milkmaid Folk Club Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk
19 - 20.07.08 Brampton Live! Brampton, Cumbria