Stop by an Irish pub today, and if you’re lucky you’ll hear the evocative wail of a Great Highland Bagpipe.
It’s an instrument with ancient roots in Scotland, not Ireland. Today, the men playing those pipes in Everett won’t be from across the Atlantic, but from firefighting agencies in Snohomish County. No matter, everyone gets to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.
“We’re all firemen by trade,” said Jhareme Fuller, a firefighter with Snohomish County Fire District 1 in south Snohomish County. Fuller, 34, said that learning to play bagpipes at first left him feeling “just a little bit thick-headed and fat-fingered.”
Learning to play bagpipes is an amazing feat, especially for people with demanding jobs and little previous musical experience. That feat has been accomplished by members of Snohomish County Firefighters Pipes and Drums, a group of 29 firefighters who lead double lives as musicians.
There are 18 bagpipers and 11 drummers in the band, said Chris Stablein, the group’s pipe major and a firefighter with Snohomish County Fire District 7, which covers the Mill Creek area. Stablein said there’s one woman in the group. Janet Jaeger, a battalion chief with Fire District 7, plays a drum.
Instead of indulging in corned beef and cabbage or green beer this St. Paddy’s, why not have a listen? Members of the band will play their lovely bagpipe strains, including “Danny Boy,” “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and other Irish favorites, today at lunchtime and into the evening at Shawn O’Donnell’s Restaurant &Irish Pub on 128th Street and at The Irishmen on Colby Avenue. It’s music with a unique power to pull at heartstrings and bring tears to your eyes.
The firefighters have had lots of help from Neil Hubbard, a professional piper and instructor, since Stablein and former co-worker P.J. Burt founded the nonprofit group in 2007.
“People ask if the bagpipe is difficult to learn,” said Hubbard, 52, of Kirkland. “Whatever you want to be good at, you have to work at. Those guys are used to working with axes. They’re used to blasting something with a 3-inch hose of water. Bagpipes are a much more subtle thing.”
Hubbard also works with the Seattle Fire Department’s pipe group, and is the resident piper at the Golf Club at Newcastle. He plays at the club at sunset during the summer.
Hubbard said it takes about a year to learn the instrument. Players start on a practice “chanter,” a pipe that resembles a recorder.
Stablein explained that the practice pipe is much like the fingering piece on a bagpipe, also called a chanter. “That’s where the melody comes from,” he said. The other pipes, called drones, have reeds, and their sounds are made by applying pressure to the bag.
The band includes members from Snohomish County Fire District 1, Snohomish County Fire District 3, Snohomish County Fire District 7, the Everett Fire Department, the Stanwood-Camano Fire Department, the Marysville Fire District and North County Fire-EMS. Stablein said the group practices weekly at Northview Community Church near Mill Creek.
Most firefighters practice each day. “I’ve got a young baby, and sometimes I have to leave home and go to a park or into the garage,” Fuller said. “You have to work it around naps. Practice is a commitment and performances are a commitment. My wife is really understanding,” he said.
“They have such a passion about it,” said Hubbard, the instructor. “What they really want to do is be able to pay tribute to any of their fallen brothers.”
The Snohomish County pipe band was among many that played at two memorial services in Pierce County late last year, one for four Lakewood police officers, the other for a Pierce County deputy.
Stablein said the tradition of pipers playing at police and firefighter funerals, long observed on the East Coast, dates to the days when Irish immigrants had trouble finding work in their new cities. “Businesses had signs, ‘no Irish need apply.’ They would take public service jobs — firemen, police, garbage. Those were the jobs the Irish could get,” Stablein said. “They would have traditional Irish wakes and play the pipes.”
Now, the group plays not only at funerals, but at weddings, graduations, birthday parties and public events. No one minds if they play Irish songs on Scottish pipes.
“I’m so proud of how far these guys have come,” Hubbard said.
Pipers play today
Members of Snohomish County Firefighters Pipes and Drums will make St. Patrick’s Day appearances today at two Everett pubs, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Shawn O’Donnell’s Restaurant &Irish Pub, 122 128th St. SE, and at 11:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at The Irishmen, 2923 Colby Ave. Information: www.snocopipes.com Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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