AusTex Bagpipes

I was very sad to see the Pipes|Drums article about the City of Washington Pipe Band (CoW) taking the year off due to insufficient numbers.  I had the distinct honor and pleasure of playing with them (well...more rehearsing with them) back in 2010.  I was only able to rehearse with them during their monthly "traveling players" weekend rehearsals and had to drop out before the first competition due to a mess of other issues, I learned more from that experience than any other time in my piping life.  I'll always be grateful to those talented guys and gals for letting me play in their sandbox for those months.

With that said, I know how hard it is to keep a pipe band together.  We at Silver Thistle have been struggling to keep our Grade 3 band as a viable entity for the past couple of years.  Ever since our snare line left for jobs on the east coast, there just don't seem to be enough snare drummers in our area to let us compete in our grade.  That's especially frustrating when judges comment that we have what could be a Grade 2 pipe corps!  So given those conditions, we take the year off to regroup, rebuild, and teach our Grade 4 players.  Such is the life of the pipe band.

All the best to CoW in their rebuilding year.  And if you have any extra snares, send them to Austin!  We'll put them to work!