Week twenty-four winner Greg Mahan!

[rob gandara]

Greetings, 

Don't forget to sign up for the Pipers' Gathering next month in Litchfield CT. Register now at https://www.pipersgathering.org/.  If you can't make it in person you can attend virtually and its quite the value!

But more importantly, we have another winner! Gregory Mahan takes the $100 prize this week. Watch his video here:https://youtu.be/KjSD1bMO5Ho

Tim wanted to tell you a bit about himself:

I'm Gregory Mahan currently from Northern Virginia, though I got my first whistle 26 years ago in Houston. I've been playing the tinwhistle ever since I fell in love with the sound of the instrument in 1995. My girlfriend talked me into going to see an Irish band that a friend of hers played in. I'd never heard Irish music, and had no interest. But she was my girlfriend, so I went.  And I immediately fell in love with the sound of the tinwhistle. I got one as soon as I could, and the rest is history. I've played in a few bands over the years: notably Echoes of Ireland in Houston--we played a gig for the Consulate General of Northern Ireland in his first trip to the USA in 10 years.  Later, I moved to Dallas and played in the band Paddy Gone Wild. Our CD is still up on Amazon, Spotify, Apple Play and elsewhere.

I was so obsessed with the instrument that I started the first tinwhistle-based website, the Wandering Whistler Music Archives, in 1996--though these days, I just call it the "Celtic Music Archives" and it can be found at https://tinwhistler.com. There are other sites these days that are bigger and more popular (such as thesession.org) but I was a pretty important part of the early internet's celtic music landscape.  And I believe I still have the largest collection of extremely thorough tinwhistle reviews on the internet. If a whistle brand is at all popular, there's a good chance I've had one in my possession for a time.
Since picking up the whistle, I've learned to play both irish flute and uilleann pipes to some degree, but the whistle remains my first and truest love.  My favorite tunes change from time to time, but I'm currently enamored with Farewell to Whalley Range and Jump at the Sun. I'm sure that by this time next year, I'll have something else that tickles my fancy. There's always another new tune to learn!  I try to go to Irish music retreats like the Catskills Irish Arts Week or O'Flaherty's Irish Music Retreat every chance I get, though I never get to go as often as I'd like.  Maybe I'll see you there!

Entries are now open for week twenty-five.  Just make a video playing a Carbony instrument and include it as a reply to this email or directly post it on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/CarbonyCelticWinds you will be entered into the contest, the video with the most likes each week will win a $100 voucher. 

Pro tip: ask all your friends to like the video.

Thanks, and keep playing music!

Rob

Rob Gándara
Carbony™ Celtic Winds
419 NW 18th St
Corvallis, OR 97330
USA
+1 541 829 3016
www.Carbony.com