Bluffton's Maple Crest senior living community kicked off National Assisted Living Week week with a performance of bagpipes played by Stephan R. Johnson of Ada. The week was Sept. 7-13 and the week's theme was "the magic of music!"
Johnson was formally dressed in his Irish kilt (the Irish wear solid colored kilts) with every detail in place from the knife in his sock to the shoes with no tongue (so muddy water can drain out).
He played a wide variety of bagpipe pieces from marching tunes to a classical “Air” to the National Anthem of Scotland to the Notre Dame Victory March. Johnson got his start with bagpipe playing in the University of Notre Dame Bagpipe Band and was part of that band on the night of the USC/Notre Dame home football game in 2011 when the bagpipers first led the players out onto the field. That is now a tradition.
In spite of the “pomp and circumstance” feel to bagpiping, Johnson’s presentation included humorous “lessons” about bagpipes such as “wiping sweat off your face with your little finger helps lubricate that finger for note-sliding,” and “if the reeds in the bagpipes are not in good tune, the instrument sounds like a dead cat.”
