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The well of Celtic music is incredibly deep. The problem is not in finding repertoire, but sorting through it to find pieces that are exciting to play and entertaining to listen to.
Ian and Jaclyn provide the lead drive for most sets. The combination of Ian's flute or Uilleann pipes against Jaclyn's fiddle bring the music to life. The guitar and percussion from Mark and Dave fill out the sound, enhancing the energy level, while Paul adds the spice! The sets of tunes are strung together in various ways, perhaps driving right through three or four pieces, slowly lifting the tempo to fever pitch, or to catch the listener's attention by moving through different keys and tempo changes. It is not uncommon for Shaggy Haggis to let you drift off on the wings of a slow air, then chase you around the room with a quick strathspey and a pair of reels. The final satisfaction comes when we can find a way to link some pleasing old standard with the fresh sounds of lesser know tunes, and include some of Mark's original compositions as well. The overall arrangement is where the excitement of Shaggy Haggis comes forward. This is done through the group's ability to change the combination of instruments to suit the mood of the pieces. Jaclyn's steady fiddle work is backed by a rotation of instruments as Ian moves from whistle to flute to Uilleann pipes, Mark goes from guitar to whistle or Scottish smallpipes, and Dave can select from bodhran, djembe congas or drum kit. Even more unique is the sound of the Uilleann and Scottish smallpipes playing together, and if the venue is right, Ian and Mark and Dave will loosen the ceiling tiles by combining Dave's side drum with the two Great Highland Bagpipes; and when the instrumentals are taken care of, we bring in Barbara Fulton to add the icing to the cake with her gorgeous vocal renditions. As far as our repertoire is concerned, our sets are changing all the time as we find new things that work. We wanted to get away from the session mentality of jig-jig-jig, reel-reel-reel, and we like to mix it up with airs, strathspeys, andros, muinieras, and of course fashioned Highland pipe tunes...If it's from one of the 7 Celtic nations, (and sometimes not...) WE'LL PLAY IT!!! We even do a dynamite rendition of "The House of the Rising Sun"! Here are a few set examples thet we do... The "My Home" set consists of Jaclyn playing a lovely Cape Breton air that we know as "My Home" with a light guitar underscoring, that moves into a couple of Scottish strathspeys. The accordion joins in for "The Haughs of Cromdale" to which we then add the Uilleann pipes. This cooks along into "Captain Campbell's" as we beef it up with a bit of percussion and Paul switches to piano adding to the accompaniment. A slight pause from the percussion as Jaclyn takes off into a standard Cape Breton reel called "The Old French" and then the whole band takes us home with a rousing "St Anne's Reel". Our "Greg Coolin's" set starts off with some synth pads over which Ian fills in on the low whistle and starts the eponymous "Greg Coolin's", a lovely slow hornpipe. He's joined by Mark on the pennywhistle with Paul going outside with the outback type sounds behind on the synth...The boys then launch into a slightly faster (yet still slow) reel called "In Between Times". As Mark moves over to the guitar and Ian to the pipes, Paul and Dave change the 4 to a 3 feel for a lovely slip jig called "Dever the Dancer". Jackie takes charge here, soon to be joined by Ian on the up's. Then to take us out, the rhythym changes back from 3 to a 4 feel and we hit the ground running with "Drowsy Maggie" Our "Fiddler's Joy" set starts with Mark, this time doing a solo on the Scottish smallpipes, "Fiddler's Joy", and then he changes gears into "Bannais Chonnaich" a punchy Scottish tune with Paul coming in on the keyboards and Dave adding some side drum into the mix. The pipes come in as well the second time around. Jackie joins us as we drop the key down into an old piping tune called "Walking the Floor", with the uilleann pipes improvising behind the 2 lead voices. After a brief bodhran setup, Jaclyn gets us back into the Irish feel with "The Swallowtail" and then we take it home with a burning round of "Morrison's Jig" As you can see, our sets are never dull, and the different instrument changeups and combinations will keep your attention from drifting...!
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Ian and Mark routinely pour through collections of piping and whistle music, track down recordings, and attend sessions to scout out potential tunes. Jaclyn has brought her best finds from studying with her favorite performers. The pieces are then presented at practice, and if we all agree, it is then built into a set with other tunes.
The group constructs the overall arrangements to feature these instruments at various times throughout a program. A set with the traditional fiddle, whistle, guitar and bodhran combination might be followed with Uilleann pipes, Scottish smallpipes and djembe which then might give way to a delicate solo on the low whistle or a rousing percussion set.