The New Norouet CD

Today we are continuing to work on the new Norouet CD here in St Côme, Quebec. I began to play with this wonderful band back in 2000 and appeared as a guest when they made their first CD "Spirale" in 2001. The group features fiddler/singer/composer Stéphanie Lépine, percussionist Patrick Graham, and singer/composer/guitarist Éric Beaudry(of La Bottine Souriante fame). Éric created an excellent recording studio in "un grand shack" behind his father's house deep in the back country of Quebec. Already a foot deep, the snowfall is covering the woods in a blanket of feathery white. The pines have a lovely spiral shape: the boughs holding the snow like pallets of white dough. Winnie and Cliquot, the two resident hounds, can do nothing but frolic and play in the chilled fluff. The stillness is calming and a wonderful retreat from the excitement of New York. My pals, Natalie Haas and Yann Falquet will come this next week to add some guest tracks to the CD. I will try to post some photos in the coming days!
Peace, Chris
P.S. Don't forget the solo gig at L'Interlude this Saturday night at 8:30pm!

Snowy Quebec!

Hi all,
Sorry for the time lapse. I have been skating about since my concerts in Michigan and Indiana, but have finally landed for a bit in sunny Quebec for continued work on two upcoming CDs: A new Cd from Norouet, with Éric Beaudry, Stephanie Lepine, and Patrick Graham, and one from my dear friend, Jean-Paul Loyer. Both are set to drop in the spring and both promise to be full of the great spirit of the North Country. I will be updating this week as we work with some action photos, quotes and maybe even a vid or two. Meanwhile, for those of you with friends in the greater Montreal/Joliette area, I will play a solo concert at L'Interlude in Joliette, Quebec this Saturday night! The gig starts at 8:30pm. A few special guests will join in for the party so drop in and enjoy the show if you can.
Much love to all, Christopher

Home Again Home Again...

Home at last!
If you've ever lived in NYC, than you know it is always a thrill to top the hill on the road from La Guardia airport and see the old Gotham sky line rising over Greenwood Cemetery, and to know what joys, heartbreaks, and opportunities await you there. Looking back over the last weeks on the road, there were plenty of fun concerts with my harp buddy, and musical pal, Martha Waldvogel-Warren.
Marti arranged for a couple of fun gigs in Michigan, and I set up a concert in Lafaytette, Indiana. The concert at Third Reformed Church in Holland, MI was a highlight: the audience was cheerful and really receptive to the music. We managed to get a pretty good video of that concert, so watch this blog for a posting of it. Saturday last, we drove down to Indiana where my friend (and Tippecanoe Ancient Fife and Drum Corps Director) Malcolm Duncan put on an excellent pickin' party for Marti and I in his barn in Battleground, IN. Singer, Steve Stump regaled all assembled with his great songs, whistlers Steph and Malcolm chimed in and Marti and I did our best to add to the general air of jollification! Thanks to Malcolm for the great time!
Sunday afternoon, Dick Nagel hosted Marti and I for a house concert at the Loeb House Inn in Lafayette to a fun capacity crown and folks seemed to really enjoy the music as well. Look for photos and such of the events here soon.

My Concerts This Weekend

Ready for some kickin' Early American and English dance tunes and totally transcendent all-male vocal music in The Cathedral of St. John The Divine??? Get thy corpus up to the "largest gothic anything in the whole damn anything" just up the Red Line here in Gotham, Saturday night at 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. It's gonna melt your soft parts and give you strength. We (New York Early Music Foundation) just did an audiophile recording live to two mics in the hall this week, so the stuff will be fresh baked, and in that spacious reverberant chamber it's gonna be wet, wet, wet....I am sure there will not be a dry seat in the house. You are gonna love the "gut string trio"...fiddle, chamber bass(a sort of cello-y thing) and six key flute. De lovely Paul Shipper is also doing some citern, guittern, and drummy things too.

Much love to all, Christopher

The Old Flail

On the news that one of my flute heroes had made the grade and ascended to the land of light last August, I began to assemble a bouquet of tunes of his to send out into the ether for his pleasure. The upcoming tour will feature some threads in the tapestry that was his life. His lines often cover new ground, and the doors he opened with those lines are at once old and new. Vincent Broderick spent much of his life writing and organizing tunes for the enjoyment of others.

Itinerant Piper

Hi Kids! Here are some solo and duo tour dates for the Mid-West in November...
-Sunday, November 9th, 7:30pm: Radio Radio 1119 Prospect Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, "Solopipes" show
-Thursday Nov. 13th, 7pm: Holland, Michigan: Third Reformed Church: Duo show with harpist, Martha Waldvogel-Warren
-Friday, Nov. 14th, 8pm: Wealthy Theater, Grand Rapids Michigan: Duo show with harpist, Martha Waldvogel-Warren
-Sunday, November 16th 3:30pm: Loeb House Inn, Lafayette, Indiana, Duo w/ Martha Waldvogel-Warren

Piping planetwide, waves of music cause international incident.

NEW YORK - Recent reports indicate that audible waves of piping have been interfering with corporate plans to "cause a worldwide bummer". First detected by the Very Large Array Radio Laboratory in the U.S. Southwest as a carrier wave distributed by community radio stations such as KZMU Community Radio in Moab, Utah and WWOZ Community Radio in New Orleans, Lousiana, the highly mobile source of this odd but uplifting event seems to be Uilleann Piper and Flutist, Christopher Layer. World leaders, refusing to be swayed from their personal missions to behave abominably towards their own species, other lifeforms inhabiting the Geosphere, and their wives, are in a confused and vulnerable state. One such leader when queried on the issue said: "Umm, well, I guess I'll just have the BLT Double Broiler without lettuce instead." An obvious reference to the "massive-shortage-in-fast-food-crisis" that is looming on the horizon, and currently threatening to cause widespread unemployment in the foodservice and healthcare industries. Welcome to my blog, kids! Please leave a message after the tone. And remember folks: The moving sidewalk is coming to an end, so please...watch your step.