Youve all heard the skirl of the pipes at Fourth of July celebrations, and watched the pipers and drummers march by. Whats more American than a Scottish pipe band?

Joanne, your blog host at Fourth of July History, has just released a new book of folklore and mythology that is all about bagpipes and pipers. Now you can read centuries old stories about the piping tradition.

via Fourth of July History and Traditions: Bagpipe Book.

Hannemann, Wichita junior, said his interest in learning to play bagpipes was sparked because he grew up next to a neighbor who would play the bagpipes with windows open.

via Student makes money from playing the bagpipes : Kansan.com.

via Notes from Memphis: Bagpipe Busker in Downtown Memphis.

In my mind, there is no other sound capable of stirring the blood or awakening the glow of ardour in one’s breast as the drone of the piob mhor; the Great Highland Bagpipe.

Ever since I was a child, I thrilled at the sound of the pipes, and the vivid, fantastic images they awoke in my imagination.

via OakvilleBeaver.com: Opinions & Letters: Article: Piping pride of tradition.

Forty-three years later, Rowe is pipe major of the traditional bagpipe and drum band based in Andover.

The band, which started in 1978, is named for Morris Campbell, who taught bagpipe lessons in Andover for years. His son, Bruce, is still with the 13-member troupe.

Rowe was born in Lynn, of Scottish and Irish descent. He works for Conte and Sons Funeral Homes in North Andover.

via Bagpiper finds connection to Scottish, Irish ancestors – EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA.

I am all set to record the Twilight Zone episode titled “Five Characters in Search of an Exit”, set to air on July 4th, 2009 at 11:00 AM EST on the SciFi channel, on my local cable carrier. This episode features a Bagpiper as one of the 5 characters looking for that elusive exit.

This episode was originally aired in 1961 and I remember seeing it when I was a kid, but I wasn’t into bagpiping then !

After becoming aware of the episode again when researching Bagpipes in the Movies, I have tried to remember to record the show when it airs on TV again over the last couple of years, but I always missed it. There is a Twilight Zone Marathon this 4th of July Weekend, Check you local TV Listings !

Opening Narration:
Clown. Hobo. Ballet Dancer. Bagpiper. And an Army Major. A collection of question marks. Five improbable entities stuck together into a pit of darkness. No logic, no reason, no explanation. Just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows. In a moment, we’ll start collecting clues as to the whys, the whats, and the wheres. We will not end the nightmare, we’ll only explain it, because this is the Twilight Zone

UPDATE:

After searching for additional information about the episode online, I found that you can watch on your computer at CBS – (Click Here to Watch):

Not that I am going to watch online with my 15″ MacBookPro, I will reserve that pleasure once I can watch on my 52″ TV, when it airs on the SciFiHD channel. For those with with two SciFi channels on your tv, make sure you record the HD version of the SciFi

Rob Calder is a 32-year old bagpiper from Edinburgh. He is in the United States pounding the pavement with his bagpipes to raise money for charity. Calder calls himself the “Bagpipe Busker.”

Calder is raising money for ECAS. The charity provides practical help to the disabled. Calder hopes money raised during his six-week U.S. tour will provide swimming, sailing, and other lessons to the disabled.

Calder says so far, “people have been fantastic in Philadelphia.” The traveling bagpiper is relying on the kindness of locals and people of Scottish decent to host him.

via Scottish babpiper Rob Calder.

That turned out to have been a good choice of hobbies, in more ways than one.

In fact, playing bagpipes probably saved his life because, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, he had to take a breathing test to measure his lung capacity. For most men in their early 60s, an 80 percent reading is the standard for that test, but McKasson blew a 98 percent, and that surely helped his recovery after the surgery that took half of one lung. His operation took place in April 2007, and McKasson’s recovery was swift enough to allow him to march and play in the Paradise Fourth of July parade just a few months later.

“We were mostly marching downhill,” he said modestly.

The number one song in every bagpiper’s repertoire is “Amazing Grace” and lots of people would find a connection between McKasson’s speedy recovery from lung cancer and the fact that he’s played that inspiring old hymn more times than he can possibly count.

via Cover story: Paradise bagpipe player echoes the highlands – Chico Enterprise Record.

It beggars belief that the philistines who occupy police headquarters at Pitt Street in Glasgow could plot the demise of the iconic ensemble that is Strathclyde Police Pipe Band – and gloat about it in the name of force efficiency, as did Chief Superintendent John Pollock last Friday.

His outburst stuck in the craw of every right-thinking Scot.

No one should be under any illusion as to what the future of the band is.

Morale is so low that I doubt they will exist next year and a 123-year tradition, a proud history of 22 World Pipe Band Championship titles and the affection of an entire community will be gone.

Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians they weren’t needed any more? To say it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the band going is nonsense. They receive £29,500 per year from the force.

via Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians that they weren’t needed any more? – Scotsman.com News .

FOR MANY people, a series of major life changes (and not just one) are required to create an entirely “new life”.

North Carolina native Bill Haneman arrived at his unlikely career utopia – making uilleann pipes for a living – in two stages. Twelve years ago he emigrated from the US to Skerries in north county Dublin with his wife and sister-in-law – that move across the Atlantic was change number one.

But having made that first leap of faith, he sensed that another change was required and so he subsequently made another brave leap into the unknown, ditching his job in the IT industry to become an instrument maker in 2007.

via Tuned in to a new way of life – The Irish Times – Tue, Jun 23, 2009.

The Story of Piper James Richardson, VC. Canada’s only piper to earn the Victoria Cross. An epic documentary from the Academy Award winning Paradigm Motion Picture Company. The film will recount the war experience of the 16th Battalion Canadian Scottish and Richardson’s action during the Battle of the Somme, 1916.

Movie Website - The Pipes of War .

Someone once said the definition of a gentleman is a person who knows how to play the bagpipes — and doesn’t.

But don’t tell that to the scores of pipers who will be taking part in the 18th annual Canadian International Military Tattoo at Copps Coliseum tonight and tomorrow.

And don’t think of mentioning it to the thousands of enthusiastic military band fans who will come out and cheer for more at the event that will feature five pipe bands and six other military bands.

One of the pipers will be Chief Warrant Officer (retired) John Terence, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.

via TheSpec.com – Local – Bring on the bagpipes .

A 25-STRONG team of traditional Scots musicians scaled one of the country’s top Munros to blast their drums and pipes at 3200 feet.The hills were alive with music as members of the Williamwood Pipe Band, dragged their equipment – featuring 10 sets of pipes, two side drums one tenor and a bass drum – up Ben Lomond last Sunday.

As well as playing the likes of ‘Scotland the Brave’ and apt tunes like ‘Gaelforce Wind’ and ‘High Road to Gairloch’, the members of Williamwood also raised an impressive s3000 through sponsorship.

Drummer Grant McDowell said: “We are delighted we completed our challenge to the top of Ben Lomond.

“It was very tough in the soaring heat, but positive team morale and motivation ensured that each and every one of us completed the climb successfully.”

The money will be used to help fund the south side band, which first formed in 1945 by the 128th Glasgow Company of the Boys’ Brigade.

via Glasgow pipe band drums up support – the Glaswegian.

Bagpipe Drink

via TOONPOOL Cartoons | Media & Culture | Bagpipe Drink by Alexei Talimonov.

LEGENDARY piper Bill Millin yesterday returned to Normandy — and was reunited with the bagpipes he played to lift morale on D-Day.

Brave Bill, 86, piped stirring tunes as he landed on Sword Beach under heavy fire in 1944.

He had looked set to miss the commemoration when the Government refused to meet travel costs — but The Sun stepped in and paid for him.

Yesterday he was handed his old bagpipes, which are kept in a museum at Pegasus Bridge.

The widower, from Dawlish, Devon, also led a parade by a French bagpipe band — which struck up Scotland the Brave in his honour.

He was given a celebration dinner and bagpipe concert — and besieged for his autograph.

Modest Bill said: “I feel very honoured — the welcome has been wonderful. It’s good to see how many people still remember what we did.”

via Bagpipe legend Bill Millin returns to Normandy | The Sun |News|Campaigns|Our Boys.