Tartanic

Artist Information

Biography

Starting in late 2001, Tartanic began touring the United States branching out from Texas and in their current season in 2008, have been gracing stages in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Dallas, San Antonio, and other cities in Southern California, Northern California, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arizona, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Dressed in kilts and sunglasses, Tartanic gives its audiences a barrage of sound from not one but TWO Highland Bagpipes, 2 percussionists, 2 smokin' dancers, 8 drums, 6 drones, 18 notes, fast fingers, high comedy, flying bagpipes, taste-defying stunts and scorching hot music played at over 120 beats per minute with driving speed and high-volume, all brought to you by 4 men without pants and 2 talented lasses.

New expressions in dance, tribal, swing and even hip-hop fusions of Great Highland bagpipes and world percussion flow through solid engineering to bring an audio landscape full of uncharted terrain. Tartanic sails strongly with the wind at their back, and the music always at high tide.

Instrumentation

Adrian Walter - Percussion/Frontman
John E Jaan - Percussion
William Thayer - Highland bagpipes
Ethan Crownover - Highland bagpipes
Matthew Campbell - Highland bagpipes
Jill Anne Jack - Owner/Dancer
Sofia Balentine - Dance/Aerial Silks
Tricia Belle Storie - Dance/Hoops
Micah Babinski - Highland bagpipes
Chris Lorince - Highland bagpipes
John Hanna - Highland Bagipipes

Discography

Universal, 2012
Uncensored Vol II: Unbelievably Steamed, 2011
Unfaire, 2010
Unavoidable (Greatest Hits), 2009
Uncivilized, 2008
Unleashed, 2008
Unstoppable, 2007
UncensoreI Vol. I, 2007
Unmistakeable, 2005
Unthinkable, 2003

Official Website

http://www.tartanic.net

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Reverbnation

Audio

• Afrokiltique
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• Ghost Hunt/TNT
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• Rock Monster
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• Maid of Bracken
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• Briefcase No. 1
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• Lady D'Arbanville
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• Dance of the Ice Weasles
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Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Untraditional [+ Show ]
  

  Enter the Houston, Texas-based Tartanic. Astute and self-assured enough to fly in the face of contem...Enter the Houston, Texas-based Tartanic. Astute and self-assured enough to fly in the face of contemporary convention, Tartanic combines monster musicianship, aesthetic diversity and new wave-era passion and conviction into a formidable combination that may, given the proper exposure, single-handedly provide the aesthetic impetus necessary to end the musical doldrums.
  
  Fronted by the highly charismatic percussionist Adrian Walter, Tartanic draws its distinctive musical persona from the twin bagpipes and a bevy of bass-heavy percussion.
  
  Throughout the proceedings, the level of musicianship remains remarkably high, at times even reflecting the improvisational perspective espoused by such jazz giants as John Coltrane, Herman “Sun Ra” Blount and Charles Mingus.
  
  But can Tartanic make the necessary transition from studio visionaries to a formidable live entity? In concert, Tartanic brings an inspiring and reassuring ferocity and intensity to the proceedings, drawing enthusiastic response from Renaissance purists and rock and roll enthusiasts alike.
  
  And as Tartanic has most aptly demonstrate[s]...inspiration, combined with their own perspiration, has combined to provide what could likely be a key voice in a new musical generation.
  

• Scotland Gets Braver with Tartanic - Celts Celebration Brings Bagpipe Comedy [+ Show ]
  

  Tartanic, a Houston bagpipe band with a comedic edge, returns to Eureka Springs for the second Janu...Tartanic, a Houston bagpipe band with a comedic edge, returns to Eureka Springs for the second January in a row, and frontman Adrian Walter hopes the performance is met with the same enthusiasm.
  
  "We felt like Scottish ambassadors," Walter says of last year's visit. "We were probably treated better than we deserve! But everyone had a good time, especially at the after-party at the Pied Piper!
  
  To go from the auditorium to the 'ye old pub' setting was really a treat." Tartanic was born out of Walter's interest in the Texas Renaissance Festival and the bagpipe ensembles he saw there. "It wasn't too long before I picked out some dances and a little drumming," he recounts. In 1998, he formed the Loch Dhu Dancers, named after a single-malt Scotch whiskey.
  
  "We were different because we were young, pushing the envelope, dancing to Celtic rock," he says. "People liked the dancing and comedy but they loved the music!”
  
  Tartanic has been happily playing Renaissance festivals, Highland Games, Irish Festivals, International festivals and shows like the one in Eureka Springs ever since, and Walter admits the "Tartanic experience" bagpipers leaping from the stage and running through the audience, dancing with the lassies and mixing bagpipe classics like "Amazing Grace" with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"has acquired quite a following. "It's like a rock ‘n’ roll unplugged bagpipe theater show without a plot," he says.
  
  "We do a fully audience-integrated show that goes against the usual band formula.”
  
  Maybe it's normal to follow a band from Arizona, California,Texas, Kansas City, to Michigan, just to swoon over the frontman. And it's undeniably strange that the band that evokes this level of devotion is a bagpipe band: "Imagine one dancer, six drums, six drones, 18 notes,fast fingers,high comedy, flying bagpipes, taste-defying stunts and scorching hot music played at over 120 beats per minute with driving speed and high-volume, all brought to you by five men without pants," describes Walter, a frontman in the best Mick Jagger tradition.
  
  "I thought playing the anachronism of a rock star at a Renaissance festival would really give people a unique experience," explains Walter, the dancer and drummer who founded and fronts Houston bagpipe band Tartanic. "Most people don't get to walk around in a kilt and sunglasses! Why wouldn't you want to go for that?"
  
  By Becca Bacon Martin
  The Morning News
  Northwest Arkansas
  

• Tartanic in Texas [+ Show ]
  

  The sky was blue, the sun was warm and the stage was blindingly lit by too much natural sunlight. Em...The sky was blue, the sun was warm and the stage was blindingly lit by too much natural sunlight. Empty benches sat waiting for an audience. The audience stood not far away, under spreading oaks, while a wonderful ruckus of bagpipes and drums called in ever more eager participants. Under the shade, in the dirt, Tartanic was on display.
  
  Perhaps "display" is too formal a word. Half the reason they were in the dirt was to play with the audience. That's "with," not just "for." While Renaissance fair concerts are almost always participatory affairs, few groups take it to such extremes. Moving far from the "clap on cue" rules, members of the band hauled in parts of the audience to dance, chased each other around with sticks, flipped up their kilts and performed a few acrobatics that left the life of their instruments, if not themselves, in the hands of startled listeners.
  
  Those of the audience not bold enough to join in the show were kept pinned by some of the best traditional Scottish music ever played by a bunch of Americans. Playing such classic tunes as "Scotland the Brave," "The Ladies' Hornpipe" and of course the ancient "Smoke on the Water," the four-player group proved it's not the size of the band, it's what you do with it. Two bagpipes and two drummers are more than enough to trump an orchestra for sheer richness of sound, if they have enough flair.
  
  Tartanic has flair and to spare. The mingling of drums and bagpipes is perhaps the only music that could compete with TRF's finale fireworks show for sheer sensory exaltation. Heard at the end of the day, under the blazing rockets, Tartanic is the spotlight. But their daily performances are a more accessible treat, and will leave you with stories to tell your family on your return home.
  

Setlist

Typical set length: 45-60 minutes, may be comprised of any of the following:

Rock Monster
Mad Dog's Triple
Bomber Jack-It
Maid of Bracken
Morrison's Day
BAllz-original
Ringworm: Andy Renwick's Favourite Ferret-Gordon Duncan, Malt on the Optics-Hamish Moore
Paddy's Leather Breeches/Iain's Jig/Atholl Highlanders-original arrangement
Andro Discotheque/Tribal Beladi-original arrangement
Jolly Beggarman-arr. Jamie Brooks-Hamilton
Airholes: Standfast-Simon Connolly, Capt. Celtic and the Teamsters-Ann Gray, The New Paradigm-Mark Saul, The Steampacket, Scots Aire Hornpipe-William Baird
We Will Rock You/We're Not Gonna Take It/Blister In The Sun/Smoke on the Water/Iron Man/Thunderstruck/Don't Tread on Me/Crazy Train-rock and roll cover song set
Steam Train to Mallaig-Mary Ann MacKinnon
Maggie's Tale: Tail Toddle, Sleepy Maggie-original arrangement
Insurgence-original
Bonnie Johnson-original
Blue Cloud-Adam Quinn
Mason's Apron-original arrangement
Desert Storm-Robert Mathieson
Lady D'Arbanville-Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens)
Cabar Feidh/King George-original arrangement
Amazing Grace-original arrangement
Briefcase No. 1: Famous Bally Moat-Ian Duncan, Kelsey's Wee Reel-Iain Symington
Mr. Jack-Roy Hamilton
Tripping Up the Stairs-original arrangement
MacArthur Road-original arrangement
Winnipeg Forager-Donnie Bradford
A Good Drying-R.S. MacDonald
The Foggy Dew-original arrangement
A Real Moment-original
(Bitch) You Are My Best Friend-original
First Six Hours-Mason Parsons

Trad. Reels:
Barney's Balmoral
Clean Pease Strae
Colonel Macleod
The Devil in the Kitchen
Inverinate House
Johnnie Macdonald's Reel
Kalabakan
Lexy McAskill
The Little Cascade
Lochiel's away to France
Lumsden's Rant
Major Campbell Graham, MBE
The Man from Glengarry
Miss Girdle
The Ness Pipers
Pipe Major Calum Campbell
The Sound of Sleat

Trad. Jigs:
Alan Macpherson of Mosspark
Archie Beag
The Banjo Breakdown
Barbara's Jig
Beaton's Blue Bonnet
Cutting Bracken
Donald Willie and his Dog
Eileen Macdonald
The Foxhunter
The Glasgow City Police Pipers
Haste to the Wedding
The Irish Washerwoman
Kenny Gilles of Portnalong, Skye
McGuire's Jig
The Mull of Kintyre
The Nicky Tams
Paddy O'Rafferty
The Rakes of Kildare

Trad. Hornpipes:
The Boys of Blue Hill
Calum Beag
The Circasian Circle
Duncan Johnstone
The High Level
HMS Renown
Ina Mackenzie
The Man from Skye
Paddy McGinty's Goat
The Pigeon on the Gate
Pipe Major George Allan
Tam Bain's Lum
The Train Journey North

Basic Requirements

PDF Rider

LOA 2009

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