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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: MacLeods of Cornwall -- A Hometown Band
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| Alexander "Red" Howard founded the MacLeods of Cornwall. |
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| Fred Howard is the pipes major today. |
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| The MacLeods of Cornwall performing at a Mills Mansion exhibition. |
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| Rusty O'Dell led the MacLeods in the 4th of July parade when he was police chief. |
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| Playing in the band is fun for the players, too. |
May 22, 2008
When the Memorial Day parade assembles on Monday, marching in it will be a band that has been playing in Cornwall for nearly 50 years.
The MacLeods of Cornwall, a pipe and drum band, always gets a warm welcome along the parade route for its rousing tunes and Scottish tartans. But how many people know the history of the band?
Fred Howard, the band’s pipes major who lives with his wife, Judith, on Algernon Street in Cornwall, took over the band in the 1960s after his father, Alexander passed away. Alexander, who was known as Red, started the MacLeods in 1959, along with fellow Scottish immigrant Alexander MacGregor.
The two were part of a group of Scots who came over to Cornwall in the early 1900s to work at the Firth Carpet Mill, a British company. Red was a toddler when he joined his father here around 1910.
The area near the mill, from present-day Willow Avenue down to Mill Street was known as Firthcliffe and central to its social life was the Firthcliffe Club, where the Clan MacLeod held its meetings. Most of the Scots in Cornwall belonged to the Clan, even if they weren’t MacLeods. It was more of a social club.
“My father’s dream was to get a pipe band going,” Fred Howard recalls. “He owned a bar (now the Shamrock Tavern on Main Street) and loved do parties and be with a lot of people.”
Fred says that his father never played an instrument, but he gathered some Clan MacLeod members who wanted to learn and invited a pipes player down from Albany to teach them. Red Howard was the drum major, directing the group with his mace, a large baton with a knob on the top.
Fred learned how to play the pipes, but when he started leading the band in the mid-1960s he saw they needed drummers and began looking for a drum instructor. His nephew learned drumming and then taught more to play. Today the band has two snare drums, a bass drum, and, occasionally, a tenor drum.
One of the people who have played tenor drum with the MacLeods is former Cornwall police chief Rusty O’Dell, Fred’s nephew. Fred’s children have all learned to play the pipes. His daughter, Shelly, joins the band from her home in Connecticut whenever she can. Son William, who now lives in Florida, is a professional piper who is married to a Highland Dance champion. They live in Florida where they run a Highlands store.
The band has won many competitions during its 49 years and Fred’s wife, Judith, says they have made a lot of friends at Highlands exhibitions and competitions. The members of the band are always changing as people move away and others take up the pipes.
Barry Devligher joined the band just three-and-a-half years ago and he had never played the pipes before he joined. “I wanted to play all my life and I was told by my stepfather I wasn’t musically inclined.” Devligher hails from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where fiddle and pipe music runs in the blood.
He started learning how to finger the pipe and then added the bag that controls the air flow and pitch. Today, Devligher, who is the owner of Barry’s Automotive in New Windsor, not only plays pipes but also reads and writes music.
The band is always adding new music and Fred says they would welcome anyone who wants to learn to play the pipes or drums and join the band.
For more information about the MacLeods of Cornwall, you may visit their website at home.hvc.rr.com/macleodscornwall/history.htm
If you’d like to hear them play, click here for a video clip on You Tube.
CLICK ON ANY PHOTO FOR A LARGER VIEW.
Comments:
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Who doesn't love a man in a kilt...
posted by kate benson on 05/23/08 at 12:14 AM
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