Dick Hensold: CDs


Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes	Piper's Crow	Light from Heaven	More CDs

big music cd

Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes

Dick Hensold's latest CD is all music for Northumbrian smallpipes. Over half of the music is original and is released here for the first time. The title refers to the longer tracks, some of which are extended variation sets, and some of which are ensemble works.

Label: Ten Thousand Lakes (The Schubert Club)

TRACK LIST

1. Mysteries of Knock Dean Magraw, guitar

3. New Way To Morpeth

5. Zoë Cansdale of Hartburn (Dick Hensold ©1999, BMI) Cathy Victorsen, harp; Laura MacKenzie, flute; Karen Mueller, guitar; Joanna Shelton, Bruce Bowers, violin; Ginna Watson, Chris Buckley, viola; Michelle Kinney, Anna Vazquez, cello

6. Air for Maurice Ogg (Alistair Anderson, pub.Topic, 1982) / Marchioness of Huntly’s Strathspey / Random Bruce Bowers, fiddle; Karen Mueller, guitar

10. Rheung Knome Jop Hai Bun Loeung, khim (Cambodian hammered dulcimer); Jane Lanctot, electronic keyboard

pipers crow cd

Piper's Crow

Dick Hensold: Northumbrian smallpipes, recorders, medieval greatpipes, gemshorn
Karen Mueller: guitar, bouzouki, autoharp
Laura MacKenzie: wooden flutes, vocals, whistle, concertina, border greatpipes, Scottish smallpipes, gemshorn
Zack Kline: violin, octave violin

...with guest percussion by Crow emeritus Bruce Bowers on “The Fertile Fields of Peebles”

The album includes Hensold's original tunes “Maria Gow’s Molasses Biscuits”, “MacKenzie’s Misfortune”, “Gables Motel Jig”, and “The Fertile Fields of Peebles.” Released in 2006. For more info see www.piperscrow.com.

TRACK LIST

2. The Kirk o’ Birnie Bouzle (trad. Scottish) / Jenny’s Chickens (trad. Irish)

4. The Reel of Stumpie (trad. Scottish)

5. My Cape Breton Home (Jerry Holland, Fiddlesticks Music, SOCAN)

6. Galician March/Muñeira (trad. Galician)

9. Mormond Braes (trad. Scottish) / The Butcher’s Jig (trad. Irish)

10. Niel Gow’s Lament for the Death of His Second Wife (trad. Scottish) /All the Night I Lay with Jockey (trad. Northumbrian) /The Piper’s Maggot (trad. Scottish)

12. My Treasure, My Delight, My Love (trad. Scots Gaelic Air)

Review from the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages, January 20, 2006
“This release is the premier album from Piper's Crow, a quartet that specializes in traditional material (plus sympathetic originals) from the breadth of the Celtic realm, stretching from Scotland and Ireland to Galicia and Cape Breton Island. The band's eponymous CD is a gorgeous collection of rich, haunting melodies, exhilarating jigs and reels played with rippling zeal, and songs featuring Laura MacKenzie's exquisite voice. Much of Piper's Crow's charm is derived from the sparkling interplay between the musicians, especially the exotic bagpipes and assorted wind instruments deftly wielded by MacKenzie and master piper Dick Hensold, while Zack Kline's fiddle weaves devilishly amongst them and Karen Mueller helps drive the entire business on guitar and bouzouki. This is wonderful stuff that's musically provocative while rarely failing to elicit a smile or an urge to bound about the room."

Reviewer: Peter Dyson
All four of the players in Piper's Crow are superb musicians in their own right, and what comes through in listening to this CD is that it is definitely a band CD; it is definitely a team effort, and everyone has a chance to shine. The layered approach the band takes in adding instruments to the overall mix is very carefully thought out, as are the harmony lines and musical settings. Between the four of them, the band members can muster well over a dozen different musical instruments, plus vocals, so no one single instrument dominates. There is a nice mix of traditional tunes drawn from Scotland, Northumberland, Cape Breton, and Ireland, and several newer tunes mostly written by band members. The slow air “Mackenzie's Misfortune”, from Dick Hensold is destined to become a classic. It is a gorgeous tune with some unusual progressions, and it stays in the memory a long time after the CD has finished playing. The songs on the CD, “The Kirk o' Birnie Bouzle”,”The Reel of Stumpie”,“Mormond Braes”, and “My Treasure, My Delight, My Love” are all beautifully sung by Laura Mackenzie, with very sympathetic backing from the rest of the band. A couple of the tune sets feature a very sweet-sounding English concertina, an instrument which is becoming popular once again. This is a very satisfying CD to listen to, the tune sets all go well together, and the musicians sound like they are having a lot of fun. And you can't ask for more than that.

light from heaven

Light from Heaven

Bun Loeung: tro sau
Jane Lanctot: tro u, khong thom
Dick Hensold: Northumbrian Smallpipes, recorder, string bass, beyaw
Thoeun Moen: Cambodian drums

Light from Heaven is an ensemble that performs traditional Cambodian music. It features Cambodian virtuoso musician Bun Loeung, plus Dick Hensold, Jane Lanctot and Thoeun Moen. This CD, Rak-Smey Khemera, was released in 2001, and won the Just Plain Folks Best Ethnic/World CD in 2002. It is a collection of classical Cambodian mahaori music, which is now in danger of dying out in Cambodia. Rak-Smey Khemera features traditional Cambodian mallet instruments such as the roneat (a xylophone), khong thom (gong circle), khim (hammered dulcimer), as well as Cambodian drums and string instuments. In addition to the different Cambodian instruments, it also uses a few Western ones, including recorder and Northumbrian smallpipes! For more information, go to www.lightfromheaven.org

relief