The men had performed together a couple times before, but a walking performance would really test their skills. The group, along with honorary member Brewer, set a self-imposed 14-month deadline and signed up for their first big promotional gig, the 2014 Tri-State Fair & Rodeo Parade. And then you have to be ready to transfer and not squeeze while you blow the bag up again and not sound like cats in a blender, which it tries to do.” “It won’t come back in your mouth because there’s a one way valve. You want to fill that bag up and let your arm squeeze the bag and push the air out,” instructs Brewer. “The guys had their pipes and they were working so hard and I was able to show them the tricks that I had learned to make them easier to play.”įrom the way Brewer and Hargrave explain it, the frustration of playing a bagpipe coddles a love/hate relationship between instrument and musician. And all of the sudden it began to pick up a little bit and pick up a little bit,” says Brewer, recalling their graduation from practice chanter to bagpipe. “We were going outside with drums and pipes and for the first two or three times it looked and sounded like a Chinese fire drill. Brewer agreed to teach the new pipers the ins and outs that come only with experience. He had also reached out to Amarillo’s most well-known piper. Very humbling,” he says, referring to the bagpipe as an “octopus with a bag in the bottom of it.”įor the most part, Hargrave taught himself to play, spending hours poring over books and YouTube instructional videos. “It’s a very temperamental instrument … it’s an awesome learning experience, that’s for sure. Thomas had 20 years of experience playing the drums, but Hargrave had quite a task at hand in learning the bagpipes. Less than six months later after mounds of paperwork, Hargrave and Thomas were president and vice president of their newly formed non-profit organization Amarillo Firefighters Pipes and Drums (AFP&D). “The next thing we knew we had about 24 people that were interested, counting the two of us,” says Hargrave. The call carried with it a big commitment to learn an instrument, sacrificing free time to both practice and play. The men sent out an email to see if anyone else would be interested in joining, but knew there was a possibility that it might be just the two of them. Hargrave teamed up with fellow fireman and drum player Phillip Thomas to breathe life into the idea for an official Amarillo pipe and drums band. “My thinking was that ‘what’s going to happen when not here anymore?’” Hargrave says.Ībout a week later Chief Greenlee offered Hargrave his support and the ball started rolling. Hargrave was already well-familiar with the tradition of bagpipes as well as with Brewer’s performances, and wondered who would fill the shoes of a man who for years had admirably shouldered bagpipe performances in the local community. In 2013, in a passing conversation with Amarillo Fire Department Chief Jeff Greenlee, fireman Beau Hargrave casually mentioned his long-time desire to play bagpipes. It’s something he loves, but at age 68 Brewer knows that one day he’ll have to stop playing. For nearly a decade, Brewer has performed at more than 100 funerals a year, in addition to numerous events, awards, retirements and Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Armed Forces Day celebrations.
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