UNCERTAIN FUTURES
CD

Palmerston North folk club stalwarts Mack and Rutherford both have terminal cancer, hence the album's title.

It is undeniably affecting to hear them play Carrickfergus, a song that concludes with the lines

"Ah, but I'm sick now, and my days are over.
Come all you young men and lay me down."

However, this CD of theirs is a celebration of life. From the idyllic Huntington Castle, with Rutherford's harp strings dropping notes like raindrops, and Mack's own Tune for Emma-Lee, written for his daughter, the album is a delight.

Both the players have eschewed the more popular, crowd-pleasing pieces in favour of their own favourites, which allows for the inclusion of 500-year-old tunes like Childgrove and even a jazz tune, Gracious Lady. It could have been a horribly maudlin album, but the spirit of the music lifts it above that.

About Noel and Peter

Noel and Peter have been friends and fellow musicians for several years.

Peter began playing the uilleann pipes (Irish elbow pipes) in 1990. He is one of the New Zealand pipers instrumental in the formation of the New Zealand Uilleann Pipers Association and has been their convenor or secretary for the last ten years. However, most of the tunes played on the pipes in this CD reflect his favourites rather than the jigs, reels and hornpipes familiar as piping tunes.

Noel started his musical excursions early in life; his first instrument being a melodeon which he taught himself to play. Formal piano lessons from the nuns at the local convent followed; the piano being the only musical training available in the remote country area in which he grew up. He graduated (some would say descended) onto the piano accordion in his early twenties playing for morris dancers and a number of barndance/ceilidh bands over the years. He also plays folk guitar. Noel finally found his musical forte in the harp, in 1998.

Both Peter and Noel are enthusiastic members of the Palmerston North Folk Club band Celtic Custard. All of the other musicians playing on the CD, are also members of the Palmerston North Folk Music Club.

The recording of this CD took place over six evenings at The Stomach in Palmerston North. All the tracks were recorded for the main part livestyle, that is, all the musicians playing together, as one would for a public performance.

Thanks

Heartfelt thanks must go to the surgeons, who by their caring and skill, have enabled Peter and Noel to live another day. A proportion of the income received from the sale of this CD is supporting the Dendritic Cell Vaccine Research at the Wakefield Gastroenterology Research Trust, and The Cancer Society of New Zealand.

Buying the CD

If you would like a copy of this CD then send your address and NZ$27.50 (this price includes packing and postage in NZ only) to Peter Mack, Bonny Glen, R D 2, Marton,New Zealand.
or to Noel Rutherford, 831 Reid Line, R D 11, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Tracks

1.Huntington Castle (trad Scot)

2. Tune for Emma-Lee (P Mack). Peter wrote this little jig for his daughter, Emma-Lee.

3. For Johnny / Bocht Agus Sona (Martin Nolan/P. Ban O'Broin)

4. Waitohi (N Rutherford) Noel wrote this piece and named it after the Waitohi River that runs through the land where he was born and raised. There music invokes the sound of water tinkling over the stones, and like the water in the river; it has no beginning and has no end. 'Waitohi' itself suggests that the river is a waterway of particular significance to the tangata whenua especially in ensuring the continuity and the strength of following generations.

5. Kitty O'Dwyer(traditinal Irish)

6. Archibald McDonald of Keppoch. (traditional Scottish)

7. Gracious Lady (anon)

8. Inisheer (traditional Scottish) 9. Noel Nouvelet/Masters In This Hall/Entre Le Boeuf (trad French)

10. Childgrove (Playford's Dancing Master 1651 Eng)

11. Winter's End. (Shaun Davey / Liam O'Flynn)

12. Carrickfergus (traditinal Irish)

13. Madam Cole (Turlough O'Carolan).

14. Sliabh Na Mban (traditinal Irish). 15. Lark in the Clear Air (traditinal Irish).

16. Miss Hamilton (traditinal Irish).

17. Gallopede (trad all the Celtic countries)

Musicians

Peter Mack Uilleann Pipes; Tin Whistle; Low D Whistle
Noel Rutherford Celtic Harp; Piano Accordion;
Jenny Biber Oboe; Cor Anglais
Dexter Muir 12 string guitar
Viv Nicholls Fiddle
Mike Parton Acoustic Guitar
Sheila Ramsay Cello; Tin Whistle
Tiger Saurus Vocals
Beth Tolley Fiddle
Bruce Withell Concertina
Wolfgang Zdrenka Classical Guitar