Canada 150: the 15 Greatest Canadian Pipers & Drummers (deceased)
#4: John Kirkwood Sr.
The name “Kirkwood” in Canada means drumming, and it all started with John Kirkwood senior immigrating to Ontario from the pipe band drumming mecca of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Kirkwood, like John Kerr, played with Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia, and introduced truly world-class pipe band drumming to the St. Catharines region. He would be lead-drummer of the Grade 1 Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band, setting the stage for that group’s run at world renown under Pipe-Major Ken Eller. John Kirkwood and his brother, Jim, would teach pipe band snare drumming, creating a standard that was unknown in Canada until then. His son, John Jr., would have the Clan MacFarlane drum section passed to him until he himself immigrated to Scotland to serve as the L-D of the Glasgow Police Pipe Band during its glory years under P-M Iain MacLellan. John Kirkwood Sr.’s legacy as a patriarch of Canadian pipe band drumming excellence continues today with his grand-nephew, Graham Kirkwood, a member of the Hamilton Police Pipe Band, and Graham’s young son, James.
Nice work! John Wilson published 3 collections of pipe music, the third being the Canadian Centenial collection…all three of which I continue to use and teach my students today…
Mike Baker
It is interesting that none of the excellent 15 selected musicians appear to be players who played predominantly for dancing. Today, we seem to be band players, solo competitors or piobaireachd pipers. Would there be any interest in a list of 150 ceilidh/dance pipers.
Where’s Bill Livingstone?
Definitely Bill Livingstone!
No Bill Livingstone? Bizarre.
Sorry, missed the date of the original article. That explains why the great Bill Livingston is absent!
This article is from 2017, as stated in the very first added line.
The final paragraph: “What do you think? Are there any Canadian pipers or drummers who have sadly passed away since we published this feature in 2017 who you feel should be added to the list? Use our Comments feature to share your suggestions.”
Thanks for reading.
The Captain (Ken Eller)