Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 573
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Kevin Godbee - Sep 5, 2023
- 1 min read
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 573! Our featured interview tonight is with J.B. “Brandon” Frady. Brandon is a new pipe maker making the Ash Cooper line of pipes which just launched earlier this year. His pipes are freehand and artistic shapes and designs. He is also a freelance writer for any type of project, but has been published for music reviews, concert reviews, and a single anomalous video game review, and other writings in a couple dozen professional publications. His full time job is with State Farm Insurance. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
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The Pipes Magazine Radio Show features interviews with pipe makers, tobacco blenders, pipe and tobacco aficionados, collectors, and more. Episodes air every Tuesday.
Our show is sponsored by SmokingPipes.com, Cornell & Diehl, Missouri Meerschaum, Savinelli Pipes and Tobaccos, Peterson Pipes and TinBids. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 639. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Per Billhäll. Per is the owner of Scandinavian Pipes, which is an online retailer of high grade pipes. He started smoking pipes in the 1960s. His first high grade pipe was made by Hans “Former” Nielsen, who is one of the living legends from Denmark. That led to Per becoming a huge pipe and tobacco collector, and show attendee where he became well known. Along with pipe book author Jan Andersson, they started The Pipe Club of Sweden in 1991. Then in 1999, Per started “Scan Pipes”. He is now one of the pipe retailing legends from Sweden. At the top of the show Brian will talk about holiday blends, and other special pipe tobacco blends.
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Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
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Jeremy’s explanation of “citrusy” tobacco was interesting and enlightening. He made perfect sense out of an often misunderstood tobacco taste characteristic.
I completely agree with Brandon on the relationship between the craft of writing and editing with other physical crafts. You guys had a wonderful discussion of pipe smoking and the arts. Brandon is quite an erudite and philosophic soul for such a relatively young man. I wish him great success in his pipe carving pursuits.
I love Susan and Derek! A great band producing great music.
As the sages cautioned, when you assume, you make an “ass of u and me.”
Thanks for another fun show.
Dino
Had a lot of trouble getting into this show. First, pipe parts on what makes a tobacco have a citrus-like flavor was a little hard for me to follow. It sounded like he was sort of saying lighter Virginias convey this sensation but not always. Sounded kind of odd but then again, I have odd taste buds. Frankly, I have never gotten a citrus flavor out of a tobacco,
I was somewhat put off by J.P. Frady’s involvement with pipes. He sounded like a personable person, but I kept thinking what the hell is he doing on this show. Of course, we have to have newcomers to pipes but I wasn’t sure that a guy that was greener than grass filled the bill. Maybe I was just in a grumpy mood.
Music was tolerable.
Most folks make assumptions and then treat them like they’re the Ten Commandments. Oy vey!!
I apologize if my chunk of time was a tough sell. And you’re not wrong; when it comes to pipe making, I’m green as a matcha latte, but I’m not new to pipes. I’ve almost been smoking a pipe for half my life. I took to it quickly and I even won a long smoke my 3rd year smoking. The time that’s passed has given me ample opportunity to smoke and see a veritable mosaic of pipes out there on the market.
When I began to carve, this was for me. I didn’t expect to move beyond personal use. I knew what I’d seen and what I hadn’t, so I wanted to make a pipe that was entirely original and uniquely mine. Next thing I knew, a friend was interested, then another. It’s been a tedious yet organic and exciting process and I’m both lucky and fortunate that when I reached out to Brian for guidance, he not only shared my excitement having seen the photos of my works in progress, but he gave me an outlet to tell others what I’m doing.
I’m not asking you to change your opinion of me; far from it. I’m only asking that you stay tuned. If I have it my way, in a year or two you’ll chuckle to yourself in remembering, “I remember when that guy such a nobody that it nearly pissed me off.”