Interviews

We continue with Part 2 of Jennifer Hutcheon: the pipes|drums Interview. Among many other topics, she discusses being the first female to compete with a Grade 1 band when she joined Red Hackle under Pipe-Major John Weatherston and Lead-Drummer Wilson Young. The band was on the cusp of winning the World Championship, and in 1972 gained the then Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Grade 1 Champion of Champion title.

She truly broke the Grade 1 glass ceiling for females more than a half-century ago and now sits down for an exclusive five-part discussion about her story of perseverance, determination and a refusal to accept anything but success.

We continue with the second part of the pipes|drums Reunion Interview with five Grade 1 Polkemmet Pipe Band members of the 1980s. This era of the now-defunct but historically significant band made a mark in only a few years. With the first-time leadership of Pipe-Major Robert Mathieson and Leading-Drummer Jim Kilpatrick, Polkemmet emerged as a driving creative force on the UK scene, which was then dominated by the seemingly unbeatable Strathclyde Police.

We get together with former members Brian Lamond, Davey McRobert, Ian Morris and Gordon Stafford to talk about a historically significant band that, at the time, won competitions, made musical waves and did things differently, all while having a whole lot of fun.

We bring pipes|drums readers our exclusive 8,500-word March 2004 conversation with the late great Captain.

We conclude the exclusive pipes|drums Interview with Mike Cusack, the greatest competitive piper in American history. In this final installment, Mike Cusack looks at judging, teaching, and what the future might bring for the history-making piper.

The 90-year-old Connecticut native has been a member of the Manchester Pipe Band for 78 years and counting. Ritchie is a legend with players all over the northeastern United States and beyond.

In the penultimate Part 4, Cusack talks about the St. Thomas Episcopal School operation, inspiring students, the team buy-in required to be successful, and being a pipe band in football-mad Texas.

In the latest installment, we delve into the breakthrough years of the early 1980s, receiving instruction from Jimmy McIntosh, becoming the first American piper to win a Highland Society of London Gold Medal, and much more.

In Part 1 of the Pipes|drums Interview with Mike C …

Mike Cusack is beyond measure the greatest America …

The final installment of our exclusive conversation with one of the great contributors to the art of pipe band drumming.

Frank commentary on the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario, the chronic shortage of drummers in Ontario, and the roots of his nearly 50-year tenure on the association’s Music Committee. Fellow drumming leader Doug Stronach – also one of the world’s great contributors to the pipe band drumming art – conducts the fascinating and historically important conversation..

Did you know Hugh Cameron was the piping and drumming world’s first full-time dealer of exclusively pipe band percussion instruments? He was also the first full-time teacher of pipe band drumming, and he played a massive role in developing the modern pipe band snare drum. Our must-see / must-read interview continues.

In Part 1 of the exclusive pipes|drums Interview, …