Bagpipes and drums go together like haggis, neep and tatties.

On the self-titled album from Wicked Tinkers, the haggis is Aaron Shaw, an award-winning piper who shows his skill on the Highland bagpipes and small pipes. The neep and tatties (which can be combined and called "clapshot," for those unfamiliar with the finer points of Scottish cuisine) are percussionists John MacAdams and Warren Casey. Together, they make quite a tasty dish of Scottish traditional and not-so-traditional pipe-and-drum arrangements.

For anyone who's worried, I'm abandoning the Scottish food theme of this review before things turn even uglier.

Shaw is an excellent piper, and his skirling ways dominate the album. He's also a fine composer, penning excellent pipe tunes with quirky names like "Fingers and Thumbs," "Chasing the 'F'" and "The Dizzy Spider." He's also arranged numerous tunes to his liking, including several by Donald MacLeod ("The Hen's March," "The Seagull," "Pipe Major Donald MacLean of Lewis," "The Man from Skye" and "The Judge's Dilemma") and traditionals such as "The Geese in the Bog," "Maggie Cameron," "Quark Hill," "MacGregor of Ruara," "Fiollaigean" and the oddly titled "Wallop the Cat." (The band insists in the liner notes that "Wallop" must be a name, not a verb.)

The piping throughout the album is magnificent, powerful and melodic. Sometimes Shaw sounds extremely traditional in his performance (such as "Strathspey & Reel," "6/8 Marches" and "Fiollaigean") while on other tracks he bends the pipes to a different style (like "Aaron's Set," "Roasty Set" and "The Pumpkin's Fancy"). There's only one misstep on the album: "A Flame of Wrath," a traditional piobaireachd supposedly composed to accompany the dying screams of people trapped in burning houses during a clan squabble. Its inspiration sounds bad enough; the tune itself is worse, droning and repetitive and out of place on an otherwise exceptional album.

MacAdams and Casey add a fine array of percussion to the mix. Casey plays bass tapan and bodhran; MacAdams plays the field snare, marching snare, tenor tapan and assorted other percussion. Their rhythms, like Shaw's piping, is sometimes traditional, but very often is not. They provide great accompaniment, accenting and accentuating without ever overpowering the pipes. The heavy, heady beats they sometimes project make it hard to keep still while the CD is playing.

Wicked Tinkers is a great album for pipe-and-drum fans, especially if they like a few unexpected seasonings in their sauce. (Sorry, I couldn't resist one more....)