Customer Reviews

Wandering Mintrel

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Ennis in his later days was a bit of a hit or miss proposition; drink, car wrecks, and heart attacks had unsteadied his fingers much of the time, and he seemed to be intent, in a sense, on more of a pure expression than keeping a firm beat, lingering on notes for long durations in the fastest music, holding the chanter off the knee and applying vibrato, making his music far more unsuitable for dancing than it ever had been before, not that he ever considered it such. His ancient set of pipes had apparently always required a bit of extra strength to work properly, too, and this album has more than its fair share of flat bottom Ds and wavering drones, which will put off a casual listener at times in tunes like the jig the Freize Breeches; and in the recording the drones and regulators are a bit prominent at the expense of the chanter. Never the less, the recording quality is excellent, and Ennis gets in many magical moments here, a fine display of his mature style, warts and all.

This is an absolutely marvellous album primarily of Ennis' piping (he plays whistle on a couple tracks). Unaccompanied, he frequently makes full use of the regulators in his very rhythmic, utterly unique style. Along with albums by Willie Clancy and Leo Rowsome, this is essential for fans of the union pipes.