Joe Hewitt (August 31, 1946 - November 25, 2009)

The Troy family extends our deepest sympathies to the Hewitt family of Portland, Oregon USA. We have had the honour of working with Joe in both the Oregon and B.C. pipe band communities and can honestly say that he leaves big shoes to fill.

Joe has touched a great deal of pipers and drummers throughout the years with his involvement with various pipe bands throughout the Oregon area but more specifically, the Sir James MacDonald, Portland Metro and Portland Metro Youth pipe bands. His generous, encouraging and extremely supportive demeanour and gentle teaching manner will be missed.

He has helped shaped many young drummers into not only outstanding musicians but well-rounded individuals and his legacy will live on with every note that they play.

With love,

James W., Louise, James P. and Jacquie Troy and Ryan MacDonald

The Portland Metro Pipe Band will accepting donations in honour of Joe Hewitt as he was a founding member. Please visit Joe's page for contribution information.

Photographing the Art, Part 3

The third installment of Ryan MacDonald's Photographing the Art for pipesdrums.com is now up! Subscribers, go check it out.

-JLT

George Sherriff Invitational

On November 21, 2009, the George Sherriff Memorial Invitational Amateur Solo Piping Championship was held in Hamilton, Ontario. This contest gathers ten of the top Amateur players in North America and is organized by Bob Worrall and the Niagara-Hamilton Branch of the Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario. This year's judges were Stuart Liddell, Reay MacKay and Jack Lee.

The overall winner of the Sherriff was Richard Gillies from Portland, Oregon. He won the Piobaireached and 6/8 marches and was third in the MSR to gain the overall prize. A studious young man, great player and loyal customer of JWT Reedmakers, Richard is really the epitome of determination and hard work. We are proud to have him playing our product. Well done Richard!

Watch a short video of Richard interviewed by Bob Worrall and see the breakdown of results at www.pipesdrums.com.

-JLT

This Weekend's Pipeline

This weekend's Pipeline on BBC Radio Scotland features some of the winning performances from the Glenfiddich - Stuart Liddell, Roddy MacLeod and a 'fine and moving' performance from Bruce Gandy. Hearing the best solo pipers present their tunes is a wonderful way to spend an hour in the morning!

While trolling around the internet for some footage from the contest, I came across this video from the past summer at the MidWest School of Piping and Drumming featuring John Fisher and Bruce. Guaranteed the grooviest 6/8 around....

-JLT

Happy Hallowe'en!

Although it's over....in the spirit of Hallowe'en, I've posted a picture of James W. in his last year's Hallowe'en costume which resulted in scaring the living daylights out of EVERYONE at the party.

Slowly ascending up the stairs playing Black Donald's March, this is what came out of the mist....

On a lighter note, another well known event was taking place on October 31, 2009: the Glenfiddich. With Stuart Liddell taking away the overall prize, JWT Reedmakers wants to give a round of applause to not only a loyal customer but a dear dear family friend, Bruce Gandy who came out second in the Piobaireachd and fourth overall! Congrats go out to Roddy, Willie, Gordon, Angus and James as well.

Full results can be found on the pipes|drums website.

This photo was taken a while ago on Bruce's visit out west to see his mother. Photos courtesy of Louise Troy.

Speaking of photos, you should have received your copy of Piping Today (the National Piping Centre's bi-monthly mag) by now. Jori Chisholm graces the cover supported by a wonderful article headlined 'A Thoughtful Approach' with all photo credit to Ryan MacDonald!

Taken at Gas Works Park in Seattle during the summer, Ryan posted one of the many photographs she took of Jori on Photographer Network - a blog where five photographers post weekly pictures. Ryan's photo of Jori spawned over 400 views. This was soon to be overtaken by over 700 views of Ms. MacDonald's session with James Laughlin....pretty impressive.

-JLT