Acoustic Spotlight Archives

Eric Olson plays the uilleann pipes (pronounced ill-ee-un.) No, he’s not making music with some form of plumbing implement. And they’re definitely not the kind of instrument that’s offered in fourth grade music class. So what exactly are these pipes? And how the heck does someone start to play them?

The uilleann pipes are a traditional Scottish instrument, used to keep music alive when bagpipes were forbidden as an instrument of war. (Imagine being on a hill at dawn with an army of bagpipes droning toward you out of the mist. I’d run!) The uilleann pipes were allowed because they have to be played seated rather than standing, and were therefore not threatening. The uilleann pipes are a beautiful, haunting instrument when played by a master, but can sound like a tormented duck in the wrong hands. Eric laughs as he describes his early practice days working the bellows as “like trying to make music while holding a greased watermelon under your elbow.”

After several years of playing banjo, pennywhistle and guitar with folk and bluegrass groups, Eric found himself gravitating more and more toward Irish fiddle tunes. He began tackling the fiddle in 1985, which led him to the Irish Fiddle Club of South California and to a friendship with renowned piper Eric Rigler. Eric became a great influence on Eric, (got that straight?) and sold him his first set of pipes. (Side note: among other accomplishments, Eric Rigler has since played pipes on the soundtracks for the movies “Braveheart” and “Titanic”.)

In addition to the fiddle and the pipes, Eric Olson plays the guitar, mandolin, pennywhistle, banjo, ukulele, and as he says, “the world’s best bathroom instrument,” a $50 concertina that has a permanent home right next to the commode. Who needs magazines? The fiddle and pipes alone can be daunting instruments to play, but as Eric says, “What the heck, I’ve got the rest of my life. It’s not that I want to get anywhere, I just want to enjoy being on the path.”

That path has led Eric to his current group, “The Mountain Road Ceili Band.” He figured that the best way to refine playing the pipes was to play with a group, and gathered some of Colorado Springs finest Celtic musicians to play with him. Eric, Tom Stringer, Frank Barber, Jamie Howard, and Roy Jackson’s toe-tapping Irish music has attracted quite a following. You can find them playing every third Friday of the month at the Margarita restaurant, and every Wednesday at Jack Quinn’s Irish Ale House and Pub on Tejon.

It’s clear that music is a integral part of who Eric is. “From music I’ve learned that you have to believe in yourself, have patience, set a goal, and never be disappointed in what you accomplish. Just always play the best you can. I had a teacher that once told me that music is like any relationship in life. You bring the best of yourself to the instrument, and it will respond.” Thanks Eric, surely words of wisdom we can all use and remember.