‘It’s not something you see every day’
2 Tempe brothers in high demand after serenading streets
Fourteen-year-old Thomas Rowley has wanted to play the bagpipes since he was 2 and finally got his chance about five years ago.
His brother Jaymes, a year older, took up the Irish snare a year later so the two could play music together.
The boys were looking forward to their first public performance together in this year’s Phoenix St. Patrick’s Day parade with the Phoenix Pipe Band, which has been dedicated to promoting Scottish music and encouraging-up-and-coming performers since 1958. Then coronavirus hit and the parade was canceled. Their mother, Cloi, could see the boys were disappointed. She suggested they host their own parade down their own Tempe street.
So the boys put on their kilts, grabbed their instruments and headed outside.
A neighbor who heard the music came out and shot a video. She posted on NextDoor.com, saying it made her day.
Another neighbor responded, saying that she wished the boys would play on her street. More people began to chime in with requests, and the 2 Man Pipe Band was born.
The requests grew so numerous that Cloi had to create a Google Doc schedule for what now has become their two-performance-a-day schedule, which is booked well into April. She has also created a Facebook page where neighbors can request performances and see their upcoming schedule.
“People want to hear them play,” Cloi said. “People hear it and they come outside. It’s not something you see every day.”
Mini parades are an opportunity to practice
It also gives the Rowleys’ immediate neighbors a break.
The boys, both of whom are home-schooled and both of whom have birthdays next month, usually practice about 1 p.m. in the back yard while their neighbors are at work,
But since most everyone is working from home these days, taking their practices to the streets where it’s appreciated could go a long way toward preserving neighborhood harmony.
“This might be a good way to give the neighbors a break,” Cloi said.
Thomas said he was “pretty disappointed that the parade was canceled because of the virus.”
But practicing this way, at least, will keep him sharp when all the Celtic games that he’s been competing in for the last five years, both locally and in places like Las Vegas and Costa Mesa, are rescheduled.
He said the experience has been “interesting.”
“We went up and down our street, and people liked it,” he said. “That blew up and everybody started asking us to play for them. I wasn’t really expecting that. I expected some grumpy old man to come outside and say shut up, but everyone loves it. “
A lifelong interest in bagpipes
Thomas has been fascinated with bagpipes since he was two and saw them in a video, which he insisted on watching over and over again.
“I was just glad it was something besides The Wiggles,” his mother said.
When Thomas was four, the family attended a Scottish festival, where he saw bagpipers perform live. The kid was hooked.
His mother suggested he start with the piano first and, once he mastered that, he could try a second instrument.
When he was nine, he was finally able to put on a kilt and start learning on a bagpipe practice chanter, which is the mouthpiece and the portion that contains the finger holes. He quickly moved up to another practice instrument called a goose, and then to full pipes.
Thomas, who, in addition to the piano and bagpipes, also plays the clarinet, is interested in musical composition.
He’s played around with writing something for the bagpipes, but “I don’t have a full tune yet.”
Jaymes, who also plays guitar, decided to try the drum after his brother had been playing bagpipes for a year or so.
“We were going to all the (Celtic) games here in Arizona and Las Vegas and California, so I decided that if I’m going to be dragged along, I might as well play something,” he says.
A chance to make people happy
He said the response to the neighborhood performances has been great.
“For the person who asks us to come over, they’re happy and excited,” he said. “For their neighbors, the reaction is like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know they were coming.’ It’s pretty loud, we can be heard from three streets over.”
For Cloi, who winds up chauffeuring the boys to their neighborhood gigs, it’s a great way for the boys to get out of the house and do something constructive.
“They’re appreciating the fact that they’re helping to break up the monotony for other people,” she said.
“I told them that years from now your generation is going to look back on this, and most will remember not going to school, watching television and YouTube and playing video games, but you’ll be able to say you went out and did something.”
Jaymes says everyone will remember the coronavirus experience differently, but he’s glad he and his brother have “gone out and made other people happy.”
“Going drumming with my brother has been great,” he says, “and we’ve gone and played and brought people out from their houses, and neighbors have come out and met each other because of us. That’s been great.”
Thomas too relishes the idea that he and his brother are helping people get through tough times.
“There’s still life happening,” he says. “We’re all in this together, and that’s OK.”
John D’Anna is a reporter on the Arizona Republic/ azcentral.com storytelling team. Reach him at john.danna@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter @azgreenday.