Pipes and drums will be heard around Spokane and in St. Patrick’s Day parade

You heard it here first: Bagpipers are divas. It’s the drummers who really pull the band together.

That’s if you can believe the good-natured banter among members of the Spokane County Firefighters Pipes and Drums.

The 15-member band is marching at noon Saturday in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but that’s just the beginning of a day crammed with gigs.

To ease the logistics of traveling from one to the next, band member Chris Wetherell – yes, he’s a drummer – turns his RV into a band bus for the day.

“We get down to the parade setup around 9:30 a.m., and then we just go from there,” Wetherell said. “It’s a long day.”

The band is formed by volunteers and raises its own money for travel and other expenses, hitting 26 different gatherings in the past year.

“We are all career firefighters, and we do this on our own time,” said Tom Hatley, another drummer.

The band plays at board meetings, gatherings and events, but most importantly at firefighter and law enforcement funerals.

“Fire departments are very deep in tradition,” Hatley said. “We play at funerals to honor our fallen brothers.”

Bagpipes were brought to the U.S. by Scottish and Irish immigrants at a time when the Irish faced tough discrimination. The Irish ended up working the dangerous and tough jobs no one else wanted: as firefighters and police officers.

“And they played bagpipes at their funerals,” Wetherell said.

Bagpipes are the national instrument of Scotland, but that’s not where they were invented. Daniel Scott, the band’s pipe instructor, said there are illustrations showing bellowed instruments being used in ancient Egypt.

“There are many theories about where they are from,” Scott said, adding the Roman Empire is credited with spreading the use of bellowed pipes across Europe.

“We like to say that Ireland had them first but the Scots taught the Irish how to play,” Scott said. Everyone laughed.

The band had its own tartan made, and members dress carefully according to tradition.

Scott said the animal pelts some drummers wear represent where they served overseas.

“If you were in India, you may have had a tiger pelt,” Scott said.

Fittingly, Spokane County Firefighters Pipes and Drums has a cougar in its patch.

Every fire department in Spokane County has a member in the band, Hatley said, and they are expecting company from a similar band based in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, for the parade.

What’s the best part about the St. Patrick’s Day parade?

“The camaraderie and the fun,” Hatley said. “Firefighting connects us, and the band is part of that brotherhood, too.”