What's New

*4/24/2005
Recorded some tunes: Banshee, Banish Misfortune (on Water Weasel Eb), Earl's Chair and Planxty Hewlett (Thin Weasel)

*4/23/2005
New whistle reviewed: Jubilee S4 series Soprano D.

And as promised, I've figured out a way to throw in some tunes too! Actually, I forgot I had written a program that makes it a lot faster to make updates, so it's actually not too hard to get an update in on the same day I do a review now. And so, some reels for your fancy!

Reels: Bean Tinceara (Johnny Allen's), The Black Eyed Sailor (Wellington's), The Cameronian Reel, Conway's Farewell, Devanny's Goat, The Flower of the Flock, The Green Gates, The Harvest Moon (John McGinley's Reel), James Byrne's Reel (The Rat in the Thatch), The Lady on the Island, McFadden's Reel, Michael Kennedy's Reel, Out on the Road, The Pride of Rathmore, Roaring Mary, Sean is Sinead (Jack and Jill), Short-Coated Mary, Sonny Martin's (The Kilmaley Reel), The Torn Jacket, The Westport Chorus

*4/18/2005
New Review: Sweetheart Professional soprano D in Dymondwood

*4/12/2005
Hoover Whitecap review up!

I'm just going to have to find some way to make a music update in spite of having a bunch of reviews to write still! Part of the problem is that when a maker sends me a product sample, I feel really obligated to review the whistle as soon as I can, but while still spending a lot of time on the review, so it's not shoddy work. A lot of high-end whistle makers don't make a living at it, so I know that they're out real work and real money when they send me a whistle, and I feel I should respect that by being responsive to getting a review done in a timely way.

That said, I have probably 4 whistles that I feel that I should really focus on reviewing since they were manufacturer samples. I have a few more that I want to review, because they're really nice high-end whistles (Burke Al-Pro, Abell Blackwood) but keep getting pushed on the back burner, because I paid for them myself, and so don't feel as obligated to move them to the front of the line. And I own a few cheapies I really need to review (Megs, Generations, Waltons, etc) just so the site keeps some balance.

But, I don’t want to get so caught up in reviewing whitsles that I don't keep updating the music portion of my site. I know that's what drives a lot of folks to the site anyway.

I'm not sure how I'm going to manage things yet. I just wanted to let you guys know that it's been on my mind and that I'll figure something out eventually so that all portions of the site get updated.

On a side note, I have removed the Alba low D review from my site. At the time I had the Alba, I liked it. But I got it on an informal "tour" (much like the Syn lancewood..see that review for a description). During the time I had it on tour, I was moving to Dallas, and working at the Renaissance Festival on the weekends. Basically, I was working the equivalent of 70 hours a week, with 10 hours of drive time added to that every weekend, while looking for a house to move my family into (they were still in Houston) in my spare downtime. So the way it worked out I didn't write the review when the whistle was actually in my hands. My entire review was written in hindsight, didn't have any pictures, and also perhaps mentioned too much message board politics. I've never felt the review stood up to my own standards. If I manage to get my hands on another Alba in the future, I'll certainly write it up the way it should be.