Jack Armstrong – Northumbrian Pipe Music

(Beltona, SEP 43, 1969)

This rare EP, autographed by Armstrong himself, is a rare appearance from an English piper on the Beltona label. This EP is filled with famous traditional tunes such as Cheviot Chase, Bobbie Shaftoe, Redesdale Hornpipe, and Border Fray (also known as Buttered Peas). Half a century before Kathryn Tickell brought the Northumbrian pipes to a wider international audience, Jack Armstrong had been approached by Burl Ives with a view to his participation in a (sadly abortive) Hollywood version of the Pied Piper of Hamelyn. Though perhaps not as wildly virtuoso as his contemporary Billy Pigg, Armstrong was very much the face of Northumbrian piping for many years.