Sunday 16 June 2024

Jimi's successful mini Highland tour.

 Jimi has completed a mini musical tour of the Scottish Highlands - on his motorcycle.

The week-long tour, which saw Jimi play to audiences in Dufftown, Abriachan and the NW Highlands, culminated in a performance at the wedding of Tomas and Jennifer Gaine in Gairloch.

"Big congratulations to Tom and Jen for getting married" he said. "It was a special occasion in a beautiful location and a great honour to be asked to pipe at the ceremony."

Smaller, impromptu performances for friends and fans before and after the wedding allowed Jimi to debut new material live and experiment with different techniques for developing his show.

He said:"I was performing both big and small pipe sets, trying out new ideas including using my voice and generally looking at ways to expand the potential of my live-set".

He added: "It is always an honour to be invited to perform in the Highlands and sound the Piob Mhor - the big pipes or Great Highland Bagpipe as the instrument is officially known. However in recent years I've been experimenting more with poetry and song, as regular visitors to this blog will know.

"This was the first time I deliberately set out to present and perform some of these ideas live. It was very heartening and encouraging to receive such a positive reaction, especially from audiences in the Highlands - the spiritual home of Scottish bagpipe music."

Jimi was pleased with the reception to his new music and added: "A common question put to me was 'why weren't you doing this years ago?' My reply was 'No idea'! I suppose I had nothing to say via spoken words creatively in music. Perhaps I was preoccupied with my fingers doing the talking. Maybe I've only recently found my voice, literally".

Jimi hopes to be back in the Highlands for more performances later this summer. In the meantime he has a diary full of engagements to keep him busy, including a visit to Marrakesh, Morocco in mid-July.

As a footnote, Jimi was delighted to complete his 1000 mile + Highland adventure on his motorbike - a 2006 Suzuki GSF 1200 Bandit. "This was her first serious ride-out after a major winter rebuild by myself" he added. "I was happy and satisfied with her performance - she never missed a beat".
































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