Kathryn Tickell

Recording with the likes of Sting and the Chieftains is a lot of fun, but for piper Kathryn Tickell, there's no place like home.

I love it up here," she said. "There's something about it that's always touched me."

‘Here' is Northumbria, in the very North of England where it borders Scotland - The Debateable Lands of her new record. For centuries battles were fought over this ground, with raiding parties moved back and forth across the lawless hills. It's where Tickell was born and raised, where she still resides, and it suffuses the music she makes on the Northumbrian pipes and the fiddle. Whether she's interpreting a traditional piece or writing something original, she lives and breathes the area.

For this album, her eighth, Tickell has put together a new band, which had meant parting from longtime musical companion Ian Carr.

"It had reached the stage where we knew each other too well," she explained. "Working with fresh people means I have a bit of a challenge."

"I've always just done what felt right, and I hope I'll continue to do that."

The Debateable Lands also contains a first - Tickell's Northumbrian pipes and Troy Donockley's Uilleann pipes playing together on the tune "Our Kate."

"We didn't think it was possible, because they're in different keys. So when we found we could do it, we were really excited, and we had to record it."

It was a challenge, but Tickell revels in those. And recently she's become a part-time teacher, passing on her skills and knowledge of local music to children in the region.

"This is a very rural area, so the kids have heard this music. I'll teach them a piece, and we'll discover it was written by the great-grandfather of one of them, or something like that. It gives them a connection to the music, and makes it mean something to them. I want to find the time to keep on doing it."

It's a far cry from guesting on albums by superstars, and that's fine by her.

"I'm not impressed by the pop music business; I'm glad I never got sidetracked into it myself. I've always just done what felt right, and I hope I'll continue to do that."

Home, in Kathryn Tickell's case, is definitely where the heart is.

This article first appeared on Sonicnet.com

Kathryn Tickell

"I've always just done what felt right, and I hope I'll continue to do that."

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