Dram & Go Milestone – Our First CD!

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve finally crossed the finish line at a race we started running nearly 11 months ago – our first professionally-recorded CD! If you’re not familiar with Dram & Go that’s ok: I’m happy to fill you in.

Dram & Go is many things. In the most obvious sense it is a folk band heavily influenced by my background as a Scottish piper. Personally, Dram & Go represents a choice to not only keep piping in my life, but to expand the range in which I engage with the bagpipes.

Allow me to explain. For 10+ years I worked hard to attain a decent sound on the pipes. The main focus here was solo competition

…pipe bands

…and a healthy mix of side projects thrown in for good measure.

Like many of life’s most worthwhile activities they were equal parts rewarding and exhausting. I met and kept lifelong friends, played some amazing music, and learned a great deal about leadership, camaraderie, discipline, and respect.

Today life is different. The demands of a full-time job, a loving spouse (who wants to see me on the weekends!), and the need to save and plan for the future has made life as a bagpipe rambler…less tenable. So, rather than let all those hours of doubling exercises go to waste, I started Dram & Go. Here’s us doing our thing:

With Dram & Go I can express my own enjoyment of Scottish music alongside Rachel, our awesome fiddler, and Avery, our multi-instrumentalist and Irish music expert. Who’s going to sit around in a pub or festival grounds listening to a three hour borderpipe set, you may ask? It’s a question I’m still trying to answer! What I can say is that since solidifying our lineup we’ve had the opportunity to play at highland games, local pubs, and folk festivals. And people like it!

The Portland region has a lot of great Irish bands. Some are strictly traditional while others mix it up in wild and unpredictable ways. Na Rósaí, Hanz Araki, Colleen Raney, and anything playing at Sam Keator‘s house are always favorites. The hard work of these musicians and their contemporaries is further amplified by the esteemed gentlemen at the helm of 67 Music, Portland’s concierge to Celtic music.

My sincere hope for the future is that Dram & Go can inject a little Scottish “juice” into the turkey of local Celtic music (can you tell Thanksgiving happened recently?) Our mission is to deliver to audiences the hard edge, the attitude, and of course the immense joy that Scottish and Celtic music have given us.

So please, preview and buy the CD on CD Baby, attend our CD release party at Biddy McGraw’s, and follow us on facebook to see what happens next with Dram & Go. Who knows – you might be surprised at what Portland’s Celtic music scene has to offer!

Yours Truly,

Micah