The Scoop on Mr. Kilt and Ked's RJ Grady and Pipapelli

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Ladies and Gentlemen tonight's Movie Madness 

Creature From The Black Lagoon
ft. music by 
PIPAPELLI
I love the Blues, everything about it give us the ability to bring out the darkest part of us and make it useful.  So being able to do this, who says it always has to be in the key of G- 12 bar/ and played with the usual four piece band or a four piece with a horn section or a four piece with an harmonica...Why not add Bagpipes... and a Kilt! 

From one end of the East-West Coasts' to the other, in the Blues Circuit here in the USA you can find Blues bands saying they are original, and the words give you the idea that they are keeping up with the times but PIPAPELLI is giving you the Celtic-Metal-Barrel house-Blues!

So without further ado...might I add this is a big to do.....the Q&A Interview with RJ Grady...Mr. Kilt and Ked's himself.


Aunt Kitty:  When did you come up with the awesome cross of Celtic-Blues?

RJ Grady:  I've been playing blues and rock on guitar for quite awhile, more on the heavier, Led Zeppelin Esque side of things. Several years ago my dad gave me a set of Bagpipes and said if I learned to play them I'd actually make money playing music, weddings, funerals, etc., and shortly after starting to learn them, I figured out the Pipes worked quite well in a 12 bar blues situation. So the experiments were on! Pipapelli is "basically" a Rockin Blues band, with some Celtic influences and tendencies,  primarily with the Bagpipes being a lead instrument. We're just kinda making our own groove... AND nothing is more comfortable to wear than a Kilt and Keds!!

Aunt Kitty:  How long has your band been at it in the Mountains?

RJ Grady:  We've been experimenting for quite a while, we've  only been having "serious" fun with the band for about 4 or 5 years now. We've performed at the House of Blues in N.Myrtle Beach 3 years in a row, and should be returning in September. Many Celtic Festys and music festys, pubs, bars, streets and sidewalks!

Aunt Kitty: I understand it take a lot of breath and skill to play the Bagpipes, tell the reader a little about how long you have been paying what first piqued your interest in Celtic Music?

RJ Grady:  Its actually more belly muscles than breath, when you first learn to play the Pipes you find a lot of muscles you never knew about, and they hurt a good bit for a while, learning the Pipes. It's more like going to the gym than sitting down to a piano!  My folks owned a Scots/Irish import shop in Highlands,NC, called "The Wee Shoppe" and they would have pipers perform 
once in awhile. I was growing up, and honestly,the Pipers that I heard did not do anything for me, ( actually they just weren't any good ) at the time I was totally Zeppelinized.



I was
 also way into CSN&Y, Neil Young, Jeff Beck and Hendrix. Several years ago I finally got to hear a grade I piper ( the best highest ranking pipers ) and was blown away by the haunting 
and melodic sound of his piping, and was fusing it with pop and rock tendencies, so immediately I saw potential for this instrument in "my" kind of music. The Celtic crowds are a very rowdy 
fun bunch to play for!! My friend in Isle of Man, Angus Hoban, just recently hand crafted a custom set of Pipes for me, we designed it together,with an entire ocean between us, but now "Smaug" is in my 
hands and I play her every day. If you need a set of Pipes, Mr. Hoban is the man!! 

Aunt Kitty: Being in the Asheville area I know you are blessed with being around a lot of wonderful musicians; are there any you would like to collaborate with? 

RJ Grady:  Michael Tao is our sound engineer/recorder. He is a very gifted musician and can play just about anything and really knows the ins and outs of the instruments and gear. We plan to jam together very soon, we've been friends for quite a while, and have shared some gigs together, but haven't actually played together....yet.


Aunt Kitty: What makes your Pipapelli tic?

RJ Grady:  Thats very easy. We are all friends first. We have fun if we're at practice, on the road,on stage or at Okie Dokies BBQ! We work with each other, create tunes together and our whole band is more like family than just a bunch of folks making music. Our practice times can be very intense, we don't drink or mess around while we're at practice, but we always sit down together and have lunch during a break so we can just chill and bs for a while. 

We've gone thru many players in the past. But have finally got the perfect Pipapelli lineup, it took awhile but was 
well worth the wait. And they are...in no particular order....: Just Cindy/Vocals, (my wife and soulmate) percussion Dana Koone/Drums, vocals, Graeme Adams/Saxaphone, guitar, vocals, Zuzu Welsh/bass, 
guitar, vocals, and me...I play guitars, Native American flute, I sing a bit and run my Pipes thru a wah wah pedal  which was an accident in itself, but it created "The Carolina Wah-Pyps"! (Thats a whole 
'nother story... ) 
Piece by piece, inch by inch, serendipity put us all together.



Aunt Kitty: Tell the people a little about the Monster (Creature) and the role he
plays!

RJ Grady:  "Creech" is no monster! He's just like you, me and everyone else. He just wants to be loved. My favorite "monster movie" was and still is "Creature from the Black Lagoon". I could most relate to the Creature, because he wasn't the bad guy, he had his home and his environment and things were just fine until these other "beings" came into his territory; his house if you will, 
and they could not see the Creature as another being but as a "monster," so of course, he was the "outcast" and all he wanted was to be accepted. 


In my growing up years, I was pretty much 
a loner, stayed to myself and my aquariums and swimming in the river. I didn't have a lot of friends and wasn't in any of the cliques in school. In our song "Black Lagoon", the tune is coming from 
the Creature's  point of view on life, love and murder. But as it turned out,the song also relates to todays subjects like bullying, stereotyping, ecology, killing for the sake of not understanding others,

and more. 

One line in the song kind of says it all~ "Why do you fear what you fear and you fear and destroy me?"  On a recent Florida Tour, we had the honor of meeting Julie Adams, who played 
the love interest for the Creature in the 1954 Universal Movie. She has heard "Black Lagoon" and of it she says, " I love it, very creative and moody". She is a very nice and enchanting lady and we 
have possibilities of performing at the 60th Anniversary of the filming of the movie in Florida in October. We've written a second tune, again coming from the Creature's point of view, called 
"Dance Above Me." We have it all ready to play, but have not performed it live...yet...stay tuned!!



From the Desk of Aunt Kitty Diamond: Bring yourself to have as much fun and never forget how to do it! If Pipapelli is playing in your area, and you have and appreciation for Powerful-ORIGINALITY,  please go and see them and DANCE till your KILT falls off!!!


Cell and Text and Booking: 828.577.2104
Studio and Booking: 828.883.5662



Websites: 








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