Skip Cleavinger

Though he isn’t of Scottish descent, Arthur “Skip” Cleavinger fell in love with the bagpipes from the moment he was introduced to them in his Louisville High school. He took up the guitar in 6th grade, but by 7th he had traded it in for his passion with Celtic tradition. “I was blown away by the sound – just to look at the contraption…” he recalls. Pictured left from the musician photobook collection by Andrea Ford, Cleavinger appears with the Highland Pipes, which is what most people think of when they think of the bagpipes, but he is also at home with the smaller hybrid, The Scottish Small Pipe and the Irish Uilleann Bagpipes as well as the Tin Whistle and the Flute. While still in High school, Cleavinger helped to form the St. Andrew’s Pipe Band with one of his teachers, it has since evolved into the Louisville Pipe Band. He began competing, but remained largely unnoticed until he relocated to Nashville his Junior year and met Mike Cusack who was a hero of his, and world reknowned as one of the most decorated Pipe players and the first American to win a major competition in Scotland. After studying under his mentor for only a year, Skip rapidly progressed from amateur to professional levels of competition and began collecting awards and accolades. He names the St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia Gold Metal as his proudest honor, not only because it was his first significant win as a professional, but because of the talented musicians competing that year. But Cleavinger soon outgrew the taste for competing and concentrated on performing and judging.

In 1984 while studying Psychology at Western Kentucky University Skip was able to go on a student exchange trip to Scotland. While there, as a result of Cusack’s reference he was invited to join the British Caledonian Airways Pipe Band, sharing the stage with the Queen’s piper. After returning to WKU he entered Graduate School, completed his School Psychology Degree in 1986 and moved to Bardstown for an internship in 1990.

By 1994 he was back in Bowling Green and in his current position as a Warren County School Psychologist. In his spare time for the next three years he played regularly with the City of Washington Pipe Band (Formerly the Air Force Pipe Band shown at JFK’s funeral), flying back and forth for practices and performances which dovetailed nicely with the school calendar. He went with the band for the North American Championship, but left in 1997, not having the time to dedicate to preparing for the World Championship. But once back home full time, he reduced his work schedule to tour with his new musical family, Ceili Rain.

Ceili Rain (ceilirain.com) is a Celtic Rock band based in Nashville and featuring songwriter Bob Halligan who has penned material for Cher, Michael Bolton and Judas Priest to name a few. The band in it’s current formation consists of Buddy Connelly, a Button Accordionist from New Jersey who is a three time All Irelands champion, Gretchen Priest on Fiddle, Bob Halligan, lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Raymond Arias, lead guitar, Chris Eddy (Dwayne Eddy’s son) on drums and Bob Harmon on bass. Burt Mitchell and Skip have alternated over the years being substitute and full-time pipers for the band and in 1999 Skip went back on full time with the school system while Burt toured with the band. But in 2001 Skip Cleavinger is back full-time with Ceili Rain. Ceili is a derivative of the Celtic worked Ceila meaning gathering, however it is also close to the Latin word for Heaven, so it can be loosely translated into “raining heaven”. Though Halligan’s songs would be more accurately described as uplifting than Christian, Ceili Rain is typed in the Christian industry and highly embraced by public radio. They tend to garnish the most response from “world cafe”, “mountain stage” and “folk listening” clubs such as the Bottom Line or Town Crier in New York and the Tin Angel in Philadelphia. Their song “Where’s All The Lumber?” based on the religious joke was National Public Radio’s most requested song and other songs by them have been covered by Kathy Mattea and Rebecca St. James. They have been written up in Billboard six times to date and were voted the #1 Christian Band. Ceili Rain can be seen here in Bowling Green at the Capitol Arts Center on May 26th presented by Tony Lindsey’s Sonrhea Productions. Ceili Rain has also recently released their third album on Provident Records entitled Erasers on Pencils which is available at the Family Christian Bookstore.

In addition to playing with Ceili Rain, Skip Cleavinger is an active sessions player, 90% of which is work in the Christian industry where the Tin Whistle and Uilleann Pipes are particularly popular. He has been recorded on over 30 artists albums including Martina McBride and John Michael Talbott.

He has also continued to play with several local bands over the years, including Joey Hayes’ Union Trio and Beau Haddock’s Distant Hills and Highland Rim. With Highland Rim, Skip got the opportunity to tour Ecuador as a cultural exchange for Partners of the Americas. He still performs in various combinations with Haddock and will be appearing with him later this month in a Symphony which Haddock was commissioned to write by the Owensboro Symphony. He also plays with the other members of Highland Rim which include Ed Dansereau, Denny Revis, Gary Tussing and Jeff Smith. His Ceili Rain cohorts also have side projects that keep him busy like Gretchen Priest’s Plaid Grass and the Eric Hamilton Band.

In addition Skip Cleavinger has his own agenda. He can commonly be found playing solo at area festival like the International Festival or the Highland Games. He welcomes any opportunity to showcase his instruments to children who are always fascinated with them. He often performs for schools though he prefers to do it in a more intimate classroom setting rather than a major assembly program. Though he is resigning from his fulltime school system position in June to pursue music fulltime, his future vision includes working with children. He has some interest in pursing the study of Music Therapy, spurred by witnessing a friends in the field who uses a Celtic Harp in his work with autistic children. Skip also has many ideas about incorporating his School Psychology expertise into his performances, using the musical demonstrations as a platform for discussing interpersonal problem solving and nonviolent resolution. Skip has a deep caring for all children, saying that he finds patience with even the most annoying kids and strongly feels that “every child deserves to have a chance to actualize by being supported and helped. In some cases I’ve done that.”

Cleavinger is also very involved in the community, having served as the President of both Child Protection’s and the Shaker Museums’s Board of Directors. His current endeavors also include two Solo Albums. The first is a Christmas CD coproduced with Joey Hays. It will consist of Holiday songs from Whales, Scotland, Ireland and England that most people have not heard before. The second CD is planned to be more mainstream with original music as well as interpretation of tradition material. He also is currently accepting both adult and child pipe students to teach in Glasgow. If you are interest you can contact him at skipjam1@aol.com

photo by Andrea Ford www.geocities.com/riovanya

Kim Mason is the Content Manager of the Amplifier which was founded by her in 1995. She serves as Executive Director for the BG International Festival and designs websites. www.kimmason.ky.net